From The Erbo FilesRandom musings from a uniquely-twisted mindhttp://erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/feed/entries/atom2016-12-13T12:59:17-07:00Apache Rollerhttp://erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/the_erbosoft_project_code_ofThe Erbosoft Project Code of ConductErbo2016-12-13T12:59:17-07:002016-12-13T12:59:17-07:00
<p><h1>The Erbosoft Project Code of Conduct (Revised January 2016)</h1><br/>
<p><i>The following “code of conduct” will be applied to any and all projects I create and accept outside contributors to:</i></p><br/>
<p><br/>
<ol><br/>
<li><i>I, Erbo, own this project.</i> Not you. My decisions about any aspect of the project are <i>final</i>.</li><br/>
<li>This Code of Conduct contains harsh language. Tough shit. Suck it up, Buttercup.</li><br/>
<li>Anyone who is an <i>asshole</i> is <i><b>banned </b></i>from this project. <i><b>Permanently</b></i>.</li><br/>
<li>This project has certain objectives. Anything outside of those objectives is <i>irrelevant</i>, unless and until <i>I</i> change the objectives. Not you. In particular, if you’re a Social Justice Warrior trying to join this project to spread your <i>bullshit</i>, you are automatically declared an <i>asshole</i>. And you’re <i>gone</i>.</li><br/>
<li>I reserve the right to change this Code of Conduct as I see fit. If, however, you try to force me to change it in ways that are <i>offensive to me</i>, or that try to advance “social justice” ideals in any way, shape, or form, you’re an <i>asshole</i>. And you’re <i>gone</i>.</li><br/>
<li>In particular, this project explicitly <i>rejects</i> the “Open Code of Conduct” by the TODO Group, the “Contributor Code of Merit” by Coraline Ada Ehmke, the “Citizen Code of Conduct” by Stumptown Syndicate, and any similar “codes of conduct” that may be promulgated. Anyone complaining about this is an <i>asshole</i>, because <i>who the fuck are you</i> to tell <i>me</i> how <i>I</i> should run <i>my</i> goddamn project? And you’re <i>gone</i>.</li><br/>
<li>The <i>one and only</i> criterion that will be used to determine whether a contribution to this project will be accepted is <i>the quality of the contribution and how well it solves the problem it was contributed to solve. <b>Period.</b></i> (“Contribution” may include code, documentation, testing, or fundraising.)</li><br/>
<li>The <i>one and only</i> criterion that will be used to judge your worth in relation to this project is <i>the quality of your contributions</i> (as defined above) <i>to this project. <b>Period.</b></i></li><br/>
<li>I do not give <i>one milli-micro-nano-fraction of a <b>fuck</b></i> what race you are, what gender you are or identify as, who you want to sleep with, how old you are, what your height or weight is, what if anything may be different about your body or brain, what language you speak, what country you’re from, what God you pray to, where you work, how much money you have, et fucking cetera. Is your contribution any <i>good?</i> That’s all that matters.</li><br/>
<li>If your contribution is not accepted, and you start <i>whining </i>about how it’s “actually” because you’re of some-or-other gender/race/religion/nationality/whatthefuckever, you are attempting to have the deck stacked in your favor because you’re “special.” That makes you an <i>asshole</i>. And you’re <i>gone</i>.</li><br/>
<li>Only those people who have contributed a sufficient quantity of good work to the project, <i>as determined in my sole discretion,</i> will be allowed to assume any board position, administrative position, or management-related role. And, any position I give, I can also <i>take away,</i> for any reason. Anyone who complains about this is an <i>asshole</i>. And they’re <i>gone</i>.</li><br/>
<li>You will do your own work. If you try to pass off the work of others as your own, you’re a fucking <i>plagiarist</i>, and also an <i>asshole</i>. And you’re <i>gone</i>.</li><br/>
<li>If there’s a discussion that cannot be resolved within the scope of the project, <i>take that shit somewhere else.</i> I don’t want your bullshit here. If you continue to spread your bullshit here, you’re an <i>asshole</i>. And you’re <i>gone</i>.</li><br/>
<li>As noted above, my decisions about any aspect of the project are <i>final</i>. Anyone <i>pissing me off</i> by getting all up in my face about said decisions is an <i>asshole</i>. And they’re <i>gone</i>.</li><br/>
<li>Any advisory boards, committees, etc., having to do with this project will answer to <i>me</i>. I reserve the right to disband any such whenever the hell I feel like it. As always, anyone <i>complaining </i>about this is an <i>asshole</i>. And they’re <i>gone</i>.</li><br/>
<li>Anyone who does not approve of the objectives, direction, or attitude of this project is free to <i>get the fuck out</i> at any time. Bye Felicia!</li><br/>
</ol><br/>
<div><br/>
<p>Acknowledgements:</p><br/>
</div><br/>
</p><br/>
<ul><br/>
<li><a href="http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=6918">Why Hackers Must Eject the SJWs</a>, Eric S. Raymond</li><br/>
<li><br/>
<li><a href="http://voxday.blogspot.com/2016/01/code-of-merit.html">OSS Code of Merit</a>, Vox Day</li><br/>
<li><a href="https://medium.com/@jmaynard/a-contribution-policy-for-open-source-that-works-bfc4600c9d83#.dslxcx1fc">A contribution policy for open source that works</a>, Jay Maynard</li><br/>
<li><a href="https://github.com/rosarior/Code-of-Merit/blob/master/CODE_OF_MERIT.md">The Code of Merit</a>, Roberto Rosario</li><br/>
</li><br/>
</ul><br /></p>
http://erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/steven_den_beste_gone_butSteven Den Beste: Gone, But Not ForgottenErbo2016-10-25T13:14:23-06:002016-10-25T13:14:23-06:00
<p><p>Longtime observers of the blogosphere will be saddened to hear of <a href="http://brickmuppet.mee.nu/steven_denbeste_1952-2016">the passing of Steven Den Beste</a>, author of the acclaimed <i>USS Clueless</i> blog.</p><br/>
<p>Steven, an engineer and a gifted writer, was among the most influential of the early bloggers of the 21st Century. He was named as one of the "Four Horsemen of the Ablogalypse," along with Glenn Reynolds, Charles Johnson, and Andrew Sullivan. (Johnson and Sullivan have since gone insane, leaving Reynolds as the only one of the four still carrying on.) Big-name bloggers such as Bill Quick and Bill Whittle have cited him as a profound influence on their style. I think his writings ultimately influenced <i>everyone</i> that read his words. Including me. I know I've referenced his words many times, here on <i>From the Erbo Files</i> as well as on Electric Minds.</p><br/>
<p>After 2004, he stopped writing at <i>USS Clueless</i>, due both to health issues and the endless pestering of Internet trolls. He redirected his efforts to his blog <i><a href="http://chizumatic.mee.nu/">Chizumatic</a></i>, which focused primarily on anime. Even here, his writing was always a cut above that of his peers, and he continued to influence many people in the process. I first learned of the <i>Angelic Layer</i> series through him, and both Sabrina and I loved it.</p><br/>
<p>His <a href="http://chizumatic.mee.nu/board_up_the_windows_cause_theys_a_storm_coming">last entry</a>, of October 14, was written just before a storm approaching his home in the Portland area, which he expected might cut off his Internet service and other communications temporarily. After the storm passed and he might have been expected to come "back on the air," he didn't resume posting. Fans of his feared the worst, and contacted both his family and authorities in the area, which led to the discovery of his death.</p><br/>
<p>He may have died alone, but he did <i>not </i>die unappreciated. He will be sorely missed by many, many people around the world.</p><hr /><br/>
<p>The archives of <i>Chizumatic </i>are still available, but <i>USS Clueless </i>was always hosted on his own personal server at the denbeste.nu domain, a Cobalt Qube which was beginning to show its age. With his passing, it appears that that server has also gone the way of all hardware.</p><br/>
<p>Back in 2004, at the time Steven quit writing <i>USS Clueless</i>, I suspected something like this might happen, and I didn't want his words to be lost forever. At my request, Steven E-mailed me a complete archive of the site, and granted me permission to host it on the Electric Minds server. He even put up a note to that effect:</p><br/>
<blockquote style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;"><br/>
<p>20040917: For what it's worth, Electric Minds has put up <u>a mirror</u> of this site (with my permission).</p><br/>
</blockquote><br/>
<p>(The above note can be verified by searching the Internet Archive Wayback Machine for denbeste.nu at or shortly after September 17, 2004.) </p><br/>
<p>The text "a mirror" linked to www.electricminds.org/ussclueless. That URL is no longer in existence, of course, but I still hold the electricminds.org domain, and I was the administrator of the site at the time.</p><br/>
<p>I still had the original ZIP file he sent me of the content, so I uploaded it to my personal server and have made it available once more, at <a href="https://erbosoft.com/ussclueless/">https://erbosoft.com/ussclueless/</a>. I changed one image file to put a little "In Memoriam" note on the content, but have kept the rest of the text intact from what he sent me. He never rescinded the permission he gave me to mirror the content, so I consider it to be still in force. (The pages also include text notes indicating that they are snapshots, and when they were taken.)</p><br/>
<p>Besides, I think he would have wanted it this way. God knows it's the least I can do, for everything that he ever gave to me and to the rest of the world.</p><br/>
<p>Godspeed to you, Steven Den Beste, Captain of the USS <i>Clueless</i>. The First Officer of USS <i>Gabriel</i> salutes you as you head off, if I may switch metaphors, to go exploring beyond the Rim. </p></p>
http://erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/loading_the_erbosoft_plus_packLoading the Erbosoft Plus Pack for MinecraftErbo2014-08-03T15:06:28-06:002014-08-03T15:06:28-06:00
<p><p>First, install the Technic Launcher, downloadable from www.technicpack.net.</p><br/>
<p>Sign in with your <i>Minecraft</i> user name and password.</p><br/>
<p>Select "Add New Pack" from the left-hand menu bar and copy in the following URL: </p><br/>
<p>http://www.technicpack.net/api/modpack/erbosoft-plus</p><br/>
<p>This will install the Erbosoft-Plus pack alongside any other modpacks you wish to use (even vanilla <i>Minecraft</i>).</p></p>
http://erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/review_imaginaerum_by_nightwishReview: Imaginaerum by NightwishErbo2013-05-20T22:28:01-06:002013-05-20T22:37:09-06:00
<p><p>Anyone who's read what I've written, or who knows me, knows that I'm a big <a href="http://www.nightwish.com/">Nightwish</a> fan. I play their music frequently, I have albums and other memorabilia (some of it provided courtesy of my ex-wife in Finland), I've seen them in concert twice, including the well-known "replacement vocalists" <a href="http://www.erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/nightwish_minus_one_plus_magic">concert here in Denver</a>. But only now have I managed to see the <em>magnum opus</em> of the band, and its creative genius Tuomas Holopainen: the film <em>Imaginaerum</em>. Sadly, that first experience was not in a theater, but, instead, on our own TV and stereo system, as the DVD and Blu-ray of the movie arrived here before a theatrical release did (and then, only by direct shipment from Finland).</p> <br/>
<p>The movie is a cooperation between Holopainen and Stobe Harju, the director who'd previously directed the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2sd8UMUaIk">wonderfully surrealistic video</a> for "The Islander" off the <em>Dark Passion Play</em> album. Originally, the plan was to do videos for each song on the <em>Imaginaerum</em> album, but, as they looked at it, they saw that the whole told a coherent story, so they brought in additional screnwriters Mikko Rautalahti and Richard Jackson to turn the story into a film. They also brought in composer Petri Alanko (most notably, composer of the music for the video game <em>Alan Wake</em>) to take Nightwish's music from the album and build a full film score around it. The film relies heavily on visual effects and computer-generated imagery, most notably for the character of "The Snowman," a major antagonist.</p> <br/>
<p>The story revolves around composer and musician Thomas Whitman, played by Quinn Lord at age 10, Francis-Xavier McCarthy at age 70 (present time), and Holopainen himself at age 47 (making it obvious this is Holopainen's alter ego). In the real world, he suffers from dementia and is close to death, and his only living relative, daughter Gem (Marianne Farley) is estranged from him and has no trouble coolly authorizing a DNR order. In his dreamworld, he's regressed to childhood, where the Snowman (voiced by Elias Toufexis) finds him at the orphanage of his youth and takes him on a ride (a reference to the animated short film <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084701/"><em>The Snowman</em></a>, which featured the song "Walking in The Air," a song later covered by Nightwish). From there, the plotline follows two separate journeys. Inwardly, Tom must follow a twisted path through his own memories to recover that which he's lost. In the outside world, Gem, staying at her father's house, must attempt to reconcile herself with her father and piece together clues to his life. In this, Gem finds help from the 73-year-old Ann (Joanna Noyes), who was the singer in Tom's band (and is played, at a younger age, by now-departed Nightwish lead vocalist Anette Olzon).</p> <br/>
<p>The full band appears in two major sequences of the movie: a jazz-club scene performing "Slow, Love, Slow," and a demented circus scene, performing "Scaretale." In the latter, note the band's bass player Marcus (Marco Hietala, of course) acting as ringmaster, and a cameo appearance by Troy Donockley, the band's guest piper on their last two albums, as a stage magician. But those familiar with the <em>Imaginaerum</em> album will note themes from the entire album throughout the score. The section derived from "The Crow, The Owl, and The Dove," for instance, has been noted as one that Olzon particularly likes. (The album's title track, an orchestral "overture" of the entire album, is played over the end credits, much as I figured it would be.) When you see the visuals for certain parts of the movie--"Slow, Love, Slow" and "Arabesque" in particular--you'll understand why those pieces are where they are on the album and why they're arranged in the manner they are.</p> <br/>
<p>The accessibility of the film is not limited to Nightwish fans, however; my fiancee Sabrina saw it with me and was genuinely touched by the story and its ultimate resolution, to the point of shedding a few tears. Gem undergoes a complete transformation of her character even as we see Tom go through the transformation from young boy (masterfully played by Lord, who was nominated for an award for his performance, and rightly so) to old man in his dreams. I believe that, with this movie, I have now seen, as much as anyone can see, into Tuomas Holopainen's soul. It's a powerful experience, and not to be forgotten--or missed.</p> <br/>
<p>One final thought: A key plot point in the movie turns on Ann's earlier "betrayal" of Tom by attempting suicide. Did we see life imitate art, in a similar "betrayal" of Tuomas by Anette, as she left Nightwish to have her baby? I fervently hope that Nightwish, unlike Whitman's band in the movie, will carry on after this, as they seem to have done.</p> <br/>
<p>To my knowledge, the only way one may obtain <em>Imaginaerum</em> in the United States is via the <a href="http://shop.nightwish.com/">Nightwish Shop</a>.</p></p>
http://erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/the_next_generationThe Next GenerationErbo2013-04-27T14:38:51-06:002013-04-27T14:38:51-06:00
<p><p>I just got a really interesting message last night from my old college roommate Dan. He's got a couple of kids now, and his son Alexander is learning Java, because he plans to take a programming course this summer to learn programming for <em>Minecraft</em>. Obviously, I can understand his motives. Aside from <a href="http://www.erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/lost_in_the_mines">my own experience</a> with the game, my godson Sean, who's the same age as Alexander, is a <em>Minecraft</em> fiend, and may be looking into similar esoteric matters.</p> <br/>
<p>So Dan set him up with <a href="https://netbeans.org/">NetBeans</a> on his Mac, which is a good choice, though I prefer <a href="http://eclipse.org/">Eclipse</a> myself. And the kid is just going to town with it, apparently. The thing that concerns Dan is, he refuses any kind of formal instruction in the language or object-oriented development in general, or even reading one of the many books about programming Java. He just watches various YouTube videos, and Googles for snippets of code that he copies and pastes, trying to come up with something that does what he wants. To Dan, who has more formal computer-science education than <em>I</em> do (he went up to UC Davis for grad school after we graduated from UCSB), this is somewhat dismaying. It even seems a little haphazard to me.<br/>
</p> <br/>
<p>Yet, if you look back on it, is this really <em>that</em> much different from the way people like Dan and me first learned programming? Of course, we were working with much less-powerful machines and tools; I had a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Instruments_TI-99/4A">TI-99/4A</a> back in those days, and I was lucky enough to have the (expensive!) Peripheral Expansion Box with the disk drive (all of 90K of storage on a single-sided 5-1/4" floppy disk!) and the 32K memory expansion card, for a grand total of 48K of RAM. And the most powerful language I was using was the Extended BASIC cartridge. As for outside information resources, all I had was the occasional book and a subscription to an early computer magazine. I didn't even have a modem to dial into BBSs; I think my parents were afraid I'd turn into a system cracker ala David Lightman in <em>WarGames</em>. And, needless to say, I'd never even <em>heard</em> of the Internet in those days. So I persevered, spending long hours at the keyboard, scrawling out lines of BASIC in endless pages in notebooks, tracing out sprite designs on graph paper left over from my <em>Dungeons & Dragons</em> gaming and converting those patterns to hex numbers to put in source code, patiently organizing sound-chip calls (such-and-such a frequency, at such-and-such a duration, for each individual note, to play tunes), and impressing my friends with the results whenever they came over to see. I had no notion of even structured programming, let alone more modern and esoteric techniques; I just did what worked. And it managed to hold my interest long enough to get me to the University, where I started <em>really</em> tearing into code development. (Even there, I was still learning. I think of all the computer time I blew through on an old PDP-11/70 they had there, creating code for an adventure-type game, because I hadn't yet learned how to properly design a lexical analyzer.)</p> <br/>
<p>In the modern age, of course, it's much easier to get started. Since he has a Mac, Alexander already has a Unix system <em>much</em> more powerful than anything Dan and I were using in college. All the tools he needs to start programming are freely available. Thanks to the open-source movement, there is a plethora of code out there he can use, learn from, and improve on, all of it easily findable via Google. And there are tutorials, both printed and audio-visual, right at his fingertips. Yet, at the same time, there's much less <em>motivation</em> to actually learn programming. Computers these days do many useful things right out of the box, as opposed to my TI, which popped up a title screen, then a menu, then just the prompt "TI BASIC READY" and a blinking cursor. Most kids these days don't seem to get beyond game-playing, Microsoft Office, and the browser, and, even in the schools, "computer classes" have been limited to just learning how to <em>use</em> computers, rather than <em>program</em> them. (That was, in fact, the inspiration for the <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org">Raspberry Pi Foundation</a>, which designed its $35 Linux machine for kids to learn programming on. Of course, a "real" computer <em>that</em> cheap lends itself to all sorts of other uses.) So Alexander is already noteworthy among kids for getting as far as he has. Still, if he decides to actually go into the field, I suspect he'll have a lot of bad habits he'll have to unlearn. That's not necessarily a problem; for many years, Linus Torvalds was able to develop, and coordinate the development of, his famous kernel without even proper version control. (And he wound up <a href="http://git-scm.com/">writing <em>that</em> himself</a>, too.) Talent can substitute for proper technique, at least, up to a point.</p> <br/>
<p>For Dan, this is a great opportunity for father-son bonding, much as dads in earlier years would help their sons with model airplanes, or play catch with them out in the yard. At least once, Dan speaks of being involved in an intense debugging session with his son, only to have his wife and daughter get home and be dismayed because they hadn't started dinner yet. (Hey, ask Sabrina how hard it is to drag <em>me</em> away from the console when I've been coding!) And he was able to impress his son with a simple recursive function that calculated the Fibonacci series, something we all learned pretty early on in our programming education. I suspect, though, that soon enough, it'll be Alexander that's impressing Dan, as he starts moving into areas Dan hasn't dealt with. Something tells me, though, that he'll turn out all right.</p> <br/>
<blockquote>And as I hung up the phone it occurred to me,<br />He'd grown up just like me,<br />My boy was just like me<br /><small>Harry Chapin, "Cat's In The Cradle," 1974</small></blockquote></p>
http://erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/april_fools_quick_hits_2013April Fools Quick Hits, 2013 EditionErbo2013-04-01T21:16:19-06:002013-04-01T21:16:19-06:00
<p><p>It's time once again for the only universal holiday of the Internet, April Fool's Day. Here are some of the pranks for today, for your enjoyment:</p> <br/>
<ul> <br/>
<li>Why should grownups have all the fun of project tracking? Atlassian introduces <a href="http://www.atlassian.com/jirajr" target="_blank">JIRA Jr.</a> to track all the important stuff about being a kid.</li> <br/>
<li>Google once again breaks new ground, with <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/nose/" target="_blank">Google Nose</a>. Why scratch-and-sniff, when you can click-and-sniff? (Don't get too used to it though...after the whole Google Reader thing, you never know <em>what</em> they'll shut down next...)</li> <br/>
<li>And another improvement from Google, this one to its Gmail service (which, lest we forget, was <em>launched</em> on an April Fool's Day): <a href="http://www.gmail.com/blue" target="_blank">Gmail Blue</a>. Like the Gmail you know and love, only bluer!</li> <br/>
<li>YouTube reveals its big secret: it's actually been an <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=H542nLTTbu0" target="_blank">8-year-long contest</a> all along to find the best video on the Internet. Now they're shutting down to start judging all those videos. Expect to find out who the winner is...in about 10 years...</li> <br/>
<li>Not to be outdone, Google Maps now offers a <a href="http://google-latlong.blogspot.ca/2013/03/find-treasure-with-google-maps.html" target="_blank">treasure mode</a>.</li> <br/>
<li>The hits just keep on coming from the Googleplex: Google+ allows you to <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/100549881469536411122/posts/6cbXigttnUL" target="_blank">attach real emotions</a> to your pictures. (Insert joke about Google+ being the <em>real</em> April Fool's joke here...)</li> <br/>
<li>Twitter is becoming a two-tiered service. The free version, "Twttr," will <a href="http://blog.twitter.com/2013/03/annncng-twttr.html" target="_blank">only let you use consonants</a>. If you want vowels, upgrade for only $5 a month. Hey, Vanna, pick me a letter!</li> <br/>
<li>Virgin Atlantic announces a new innovation: the world's first <a href="http://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/blog/virgin-atlantic-launches-worlds-first-ever-glass-bottomed-plane" target="_blank">glass-bottomed plane</a>.</li> <br/>
<li>Check out some of ThinkGeek's latest products, such as the <a href="http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/f483/" target="_blank">Batman Family Car Decals</a>, <a href="http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/f484/" target="_blank">Adventure Time BMO Interactive Buddy</a>, <a href="http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/f485/" target="_blank"><em>Aliens</em> Chestburster-in-a-Can</a>, <a href="http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/f486/" target="_blank">Eye of Sauron Desk Lamp</a>, <a href="http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/f487/" target="_blank">Play-Doh 3D Printer</a>, and <a href="http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/f488/" target="_blank"><em>Minecraft</em>Creeper Body Pillow</a>.</li> <br/>
<li>President Obama announces a plan to try to pay down the national debt through <a href="http://www.crowdfundthedebt.com/" target="_blank">crowdfunding</a>. I guess it's no stupider an idea than anything else that's come out of the White House recently...</li> <br/>
<li>What Obama has <em>actually</em> done (and this is <em>not actually</em> a joke, but it might as well be) is to proclaim April "National Financial Capability Month," in which he wants to "<a href="http://cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-proclaims-april-month-teach-young-people-how-budget-responsibly" target="_blank">teach young people how to budget responsibly</a>." I'm with<a href="http://michellemalkin.com/2013/04/01/obama-proclamation-budget-responsibly/" target="_blank">Michelle Malkin</a> on this: would <em>you</em> take financial advice from an Administration that has racked up more debt than all previous Administrations in American history, and whose own budget is <em>two months late?</em></li> <br/>
<li>Nokia announces a <a href="http://conversations.nokia.com/2013/04/01/nokia-turns-up-the-heat-with-its-first-microwave/" target="_blank">microwave oven</a>...which, given the way they've been sucking out in the mobile phone market recently, might actually be a viable business plan for them.</li> <br/>
<li>Slashdot announces that, to encourage users to log in, they will be <a href="http://meta.slashdot.org/story/13/03/31/0116222/a-new-benefit-for-logged-in-readers-meet-slashdots-rot13-initiative" target="_blank">encrypting all stories with ROT13</a>. Click one button to decrypt the story...but anonymous users will just need to watch an interstitial ad first.</li> <br/>
<li>Also on Slashdot, a true battle of the Computing Titans. Who will win...<a href="http://slashdot.org/topic/bi/radio-shack-trs-80-vs-commodore-64-battle-of-the-titans/" target="_blank">the Radio Shack TRS-80 or the Commodore 64</a>?</li> <br/>
<li>No more secret sauce! Introducing the <a href="http://www.sharpenedsticks.com/2013/03/21/open-sauce-foundation-freedom-from-the-condiments-of-intellectual-tyranny/" target="_blank">Open Sauce Foundation</a>, sponsored by McIlhenny (the Tabasco sauce people), Huy Fong Foods (who make Sriracha Rooster Sauce), and Kikkoman.</li> <br/>
<li>Linus Torvalds is jumping ship from the Linux Foundation to <a href="http://itsfoss.com/linus-torvalds-to-join-microsoft/" target="_blank">head up Microsoft's Windows 9 project</a>. After the debacle of Windows 8, this could only make things better.</li> <br/>
<li>Fermilab chooses <a href="http://www.fnal.gov/pub/today/archive/archive_2013/april_fools_2013.html" target="_blank">a new director</a>...who thinks bow ties (and fezzes) are cool.</li> <br/>
<li>Meanwhile, over at CERN, they're <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/cern-launches-higgs-boson-particle-lottery-just-time-april-fools-day-1163527" target="_blank">running a lottery</a>. Ten lucky winners will each get their very own Higgs Boson! (How much will <em>those</em> go for on eBay?)</li> <br/>
<li>Coming soon to Broadway: <em><a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/04/shadow-war-musical-john-scalzi" target="_blank">Shadow War of the Night Dragons - The Musical!</a></em> Based on the work of John Scalzi, who addresses the rumors <a href="http://whatever.scalzi.com/2013/04/01/addressing-the-rumors/" target="_blank">here</a>.</li> <br/>
<li>Meanwhile, Charles Stross is becoming a producer; read about <a href="http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/04/press-release-stross-uncloaks-.html" target="_blank">his first project</a>.</li> <br/>
<li>Apple <em>finally</em> introduces their much-rumored iWatch...but <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SNBV3MoCLiQ" target="_blank">it's not what you might think</a>. (But it'll <em>still</em> be a better product than their Maps app on iOS!)</li> <br/>
<li>Your new RFCs for today: <a href="http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6919.txt" target="_blank">RFC 6919</a>, "Further Key Words for Use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels," and <a href="http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6921.txt" target="_blank">RFC 6921</a>, "Design Considerations for Faster-Than-Light (FTL) Communication." The former is slightly silly, but the latter actually has some decent science-fictional content to it.</li> <br/>
<li>Introducing "<a href="http://hackerhurricane.blogspot.com/2013/04/national-take-your-computer-to-work-day.html" target="_blank">Take Your Computer To Work Day</a>." Can I bring my Raspberry Pi?</li> <br/>
<li>And speaking of which...Erbosoft Enterprises announces its intentions to take on Microsoft, Google, Oracle, and in fact most of the computer industry. watch this space...</li> <br/>
</ul></p>
http://erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/goblin_gets_a_big_surpriseGoblin Gets A BIG SurpriseErbo2012-10-22T03:30:03-06:002012-10-22T03:30:03-06:00
<p><p><a href="http://www.news9.com/story/19858704/12-year-old-girl-shoots-intruder-during-home-invasion?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=7857418">You gotta love a story with a happy ending like this...</a></p> <br/>
<blockquote> <br/>
<p>A 12-year-old girl took matters into her own hands during a home invasion in southeast Oklahoma.</p> <br/>
<p>It happened on Wednesday when the girl was home alone. She told police a stranger rang the doorbell, then went around to the back door and kicked it in. She called her mom, Debra St. Clair, who told her to get the family gun, hide in a closet and call 911.</p> <br/>
</blockquote> <br/>
<p>OK, Mom and the cops both headed for the scene...but events wouldn't wait for either of them.</p> <br/>
<blockquote> <br/>
<p>During that time, the intruder made his way through the house. St. Clair's daughter told deputies the man came into the room where she was hiding and began to open up the closet door. That was when the 12 year old had to make a life-saving decision.</p> <br/>
<p>"And what we understand right now, he was turning the doorknob when she fired through the door," said the Bryan County Undersheriff Ken Golden.</p> <br/>
</blockquote> <br/>
<p><em><strong>Surprise!</strong></em></p> <br/>
<blockquote>The bullet hit the intruder, who deputies identified as 32-year-old Stacey Jones. He took off but did not get far before officers took him down.</blockquote> <br/>
<p>*clap*clap*clap*clap*clap*</p> <br/>
<p>Yeah, the goblin managed to survive. But that doesn't take away from what that girl did. She had to have some <em>serious</em> ovaries to make a judgment call like that. I sincerely hope this is her first--and <em>last</em>--gunfight. But she makes a hell of a gunfighter.</p> <br/>
<p>Her mother raised her well...<em>and</em> was foresighted enough to provide her with the tool she needed to keep herself from being raped or killed. Or more likely <em>both</em>.</p> <br/>
<p>The story comes to us via <a href="http://www.market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=212944">Karl Denninger</a>, who reminds us:</p> <br/>
<blockquote> <br/>
<p>Your unalienable right to life does not come into existence at 18 or 21. It is just as applicable when you're 12 as when you're 75, when you're a 4'10" 90lb woman as a 260lb 6'2" man.</p> <br/>
<p><strong>Your unalienable right to life is meaningless unless you are able to defend it, if necessary, no matter where you may be.</strong></p> <br/>
<p><strong>And it is a fact that on rare occasion you may need to do exactly that.</strong></p> <br/>
<p><strong>It is for this precise reason -- your right to defend your life against any who may try to take that right from you -- that the 2nd Amendment exists <em>and must not be diminished, abrogated or infringed.</em></strong></p> <br/>
</blockquote> <br/>
<p>Couldn't agree more. Self-defense is <a href="http://a-human-right.com/">a human right</a>.</p></p>
http://erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/nightwish_minus_one_the_aftermathNightwish Minus One: The AftermathErbo2012-10-01T12:49:54-06:002012-10-05T23:22:42-06:00
<p><p>The drama has taken an unexpected turn.</p> <br/>
<p>Anette Olzon, despite having been extremely sick that night, had something of a <a href="http://anette-olzon.blogspot.com/2012/09/and-one-more-thing.html" target="_blank">complaint</a> with the way the rest of the band handled the Denver show:</p> <br/>
<blockquote>... I was never asked if it was ok they used Elise and Alica <em>[sic]</em> in the show last night. I don't think it's a good decision they made and I'm sorry for those of you who came to see the whole band but got something else. But I was very ill and this decision wasn't mine.</blockquote> <br/>
<p>She later <a href="http://anette-olzon.blogspot.com/2012/09/this-flu.html" target="_blank">expounded</a> on this: "Like life, sometimes we get ill and shows do get cancelled. Rihanna wouldn't ask Britney Spears to sing for her if she was ill;=) To think a show is more important than the humans in the band is for me, so totally not in this world."</p> <br/>
<p>Well, I'm not sure that analogy holds in this case; Rihanna and Britney Spears are <em>much</em> more tied to their particular music than Anette was tied to Nightwish's music...as she should know, having sung many songs that were originally voiced by Tarja Turunen. (At least three were still on the set list as of the Denver show: "Wish I Had An Angel," "Nemo," and "Over the Hills And Far Away." ) Besides which, I'm sure I was not hallucinating when Tuomas and Troy took the stage during the intermission, and Troy <em>asked</em> us which outcome we preferred: a canceled show, or running it through with Elize to help. We, the fans in the Ogden Theater that night, <em>overwhelmingly</em> supported going on with the show. So if Anette blames the other band members, she'll have to blame us as well.</p> <br/>
<p>And now <a href="http://www.blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=180161" target="_blank">the other shoe has dropped</a>:</p> <br/>
<blockquote> <br/>
<p>Another chapter of the Nightwish story has ended today. Nightwish and Anette Olzon have decided to part company, in mutual understanding, for the good of all parties involved.</p> <br/>
<p>In recent times it has become increasingly obvious that the direction and the needs of the band were in conflict, and this has led to a division from which we cannot recover.</p> <br/>
<p>Nightwish has no intention of cancelling any upcoming shows, and as a result we have decided to bring in a substitute vocalist starting in Seattle 1.10.2012. Her name is Floor Jansen from The Netherlands (ex-After Forever, ReVamp), and she has graciously stepped in to help us complete the Imaginaerum world tour.</p> <br/>
<p>We are all strongly committed to this journey, this vehicle of spirit, and we are sure that this will lead to a brighter future for everyone.</p> <br/>
<p>We forever remain excited about the adventures to come, and we are extremely proud of the two beautiful albums and the wonderful shows we shared together.</p> <br/>
</blockquote> <br/>
<p>Wow. So <em>not</em> expecting that.</p> <br/>
<p>A number of observations in the wake of this news:</p> <br/>
<ul> <br/>
<li>This has all the earmarks of being a "straw that broke the camel's back" kind of situation. There <em>must</em>have been earlier incidents between Anette and the rest of the band that led up to this; one incident, in isolation, doesn't seem like it would have been enough. Anette's hiring already caused something of a <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BrokenBase" target="_blank">Broken Base</a> with many fans, and all the criticism of her vs. Tarja (unjustified, IMHO) <em>had</em> to have been rough on her. We may <em>never</em> learn the whole story behind this, however.</li> <br/>
<li>Floor Jansen is as good a pick for "replacement vocalist" as you could get. After Forever was one of the bands that helped <em>define</em> the symphonic-metal genre. She's very much in the vein of Tarja and Epica's Simone Simons, in terms of her vocal style. Once she gets up to speed with the Nightwish repertoire, the remaining shows on the tour should work out well.</li> <br/>
<li>Will she be a permanent replacement? Probably not. So Nightwish will have to audition lead vocalists again. This, of course, has happened before, and I'm pretty sure they can survive it...assuming Tuomas himself wants to continue after this.</li> <br/>
<li>And that illustrates one of the big things about Nightwish that any replacement vocalist will have to remember: They may be the "face" of the band, but they are <em>not</em>, and never will be, its center. Tuomas is that center, and any lady who takes over vocalist duties for Nightwish will have to subordinate her ego for the sake of the band--no easy task for anyone with the temperament to be a lead singer. Tarja ultimately (and famously) failed in this; Anette <em>may</em> have as well, though I have no solid proof of this.</li> <br/>
</ul> <br/>
<p>In closing, I bear Anette no ill will. I was fortunate enough to see Nightwish with her as lead singer when they came to Denver in 2008, for the <em>Dark Passion Play</em> tour, and, had this blog been running back then, I would have raved about <em>that</em> show just as much as I <a href="http://www.erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/nightwish_minus_one_plus_magic" target="_blank">raved about this one</a>. She handled both her own repertoire and Tarja's with aplomb; I'll remember her performances of music like "Sleeping Sun" and "Wishmaster" always. And, though she was singing Tuomas' words over Tuomas' music, it was <em>her voice</em>that first brought the world "Amaranth." For that, I am eternally grateful.</p> <br/>
<p>And now, like the rest of you, I await further developments.</p> <br/>
<p><strong>UPDATE:</strong> Steven "Padre" Buehler, a fellow fan, <a href="http://www.stevenwb.com/nightwish-looking-for-a-lead-singer-again/">weighs in</a> with his own analysis, relating it back to his own experience seeing Nightwish during the DPP tour (for what would be their last show, due to a hurricane and, once again, Anette getting sick).</p> <br/>
<p><strong>SECOND UPDATE:</strong> Well, now. It turns out Nightwish was <em>already</em> planning to let Anette go. We know this because Floor <a href="http://www.blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=180347">has said, in a radio interview</a>, that the band asked her to to join them starting in <em>November</em>...but then she got a text on September 29 (the day after the Denver show) that said, "How fast can you get to the USA?" So the only effect the Denver show drama had, it appears, was to accelerate the timetable of Anette's replacement. Denver fans can breathe easy.</p> <br/>
<p>Troy has <a href="http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/news/nightwish-had-planned-anette-olzon-departure/">spoken up</a> about the events surrounding the switch:</p> <br/>
<blockquote> <br/>
<p>The joy of this adventure was being wrecked and everyone was feeling very insecure. It was seriously interfering with our tasting sessions of the fine wines from the Napa Valley. Outrageous!</p> <br/>
<p>We never could have predicted that myself and Tuomas Holopainen would find ourselves on stage, alone, asking an audience of over 1,600 in Denver to vote by a show of hands on whether the band should perform or not. Touchingly we were met by a sea of upraised hands; beautiful – but how surreal.</p> <br/>
<p>We are all feeling a squillion times better. Our replacement singer Floor is simply majestic and we are having fearless fun. And on evidence of the ecstatic response to the last two shows, the fans seem to understand that this ‘vehicle of spirit’ cannot be derailed so easily.</p> <br/>
</blockquote> <br/>
<p>Which jibes with my initial report from the opposite end of that poll...and from the show itself, for that matter.</p> <br/>
<p>Floor seems to be having a good time with what she calls "a really awesome opportunity," but hasn't said whether she wants the job permanently. Bear in mind, she has another band, <a href="http://revampmusic.com/">ReVamp</a>, that is expected to release a new album next spring, and she wrote most of the material for their first album, so this might interfere with a gig as Nightwish's lead singer. (And no, Tarja <a href="http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/news/tarja-turunen-wont-return-to-nightwish/">doesn't want the job back</a>, so just <em>don't go there</em>.)</p></p>
http://erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/nightwish_minus_one_plus_magicNightwish Minus One...Plus MagicErbo2012-09-29T02:18:59-06:002012-10-01T13:57:14-06:00
<p><p>The scene: The Ogden Theater, Friday the 28th. Andrew, Ian, and I were standing in the middle of the ground floor, next to the area with the sound and light boards. My ears were still ringing after hearing Kamelot's opening set, which was some <em>serious</em> fuckin' metal; they even played a couple of songs I recognized, "Ghost Opera" and "March of Mephisto." The stagehands were busy removing their equipment and preparing for the main act: Nightwish. This was the concert I'd been waiting for. I'd even spotted Marco out in the alley earlier, as I was waiting in line for the will-call window; he was busy filming an interview of some sort.</p> <br/>
<p>Suddenly, two familiar figures appeared on stage: Tuomas Holopainen, the keyboardist and composer for the band, and Troy Donockley, the piper that featured so heavily as a guest on <em>Imaginaerum</em>, and before that, on "The Islander" and "Last of the Wilds." The room erupted in cheers.</p> <br/>
<p>Tuomas raised a finger to his lips, signaling for quiet. (He doesn't speak much in public.)</p> <br/>
<p>"That means a lot to us," said Troy, before launching into the bad news: Anette, the lead singer, was very sick, had been violently vomiting, and was being rushed over to the hospital as we speak. However, a backup plan of sorts was being worked out. Elise Ryd, backup vocalist for Kamelot, had volunteered to step in and sing what she could, and the band would count on <em>our</em> help with the rest. He put it to a show of hands. I raised both my hands; the theater was a sea of raised hands.</p> <br/>
<p>The crowd had spoken. The show would go on.</p> <br/>
<p>Now, sometimes, incidents like this result in disaster.</p> <br/>
<p>But sometimes--<em>sometimes</em>--this is when magic happens.</p></p>
<p><p> </p> <br/>
<p>The lights finally went down; the music from <em>Crimson Tide</em>, Nightwish's intro, started playing. The cheers went up from the theater as, on the dimly-lit stage, the musicians took their places. Tuomas, at stage left with his keyboards. Jukka, back center behind the drum kit. Marco and Emppu, their axes ready, up front.</p> <br/>
<p>Tuomas began the piano intro to "Storytime," the rest of the band coming in on cue. And, out on the stage, lyric sheets clutched in their hands, walked not only Elise but Alissa White-Gluz of The Agonist, a guest vocalist Kamelot had brought on stage. And they--and we--began to sing. Now, "Storytime" is a powerful piece of music, and not easy to sing, but we were all there for her. I felt as if I were trying to lend her energy, to project the words to her, to support her as she took on no easy task. And I think a lot of other people did, too. The orchestral C-section of that song is just tremendous; I felt filled with power, almost as if I were trying to levitate off the floor. All around me, the chants rose as arms were lifted in the air. Then the instrumental break ended, we rose our voices as a choir would, and began the last chorus: "I am the voice of Never-Never Land..."</p> <br/>
<p>The song crashed to a triumphant end, and as the cheers rang out, the band swung right into their well-known "Wish I Had An Angel." Only problem was, as the first verse began, the vocals were a bit off...Elise had started singing "Amaranth" by mistake. The band stopped the song, and Marco got her straightened out; I think she'd just picked the wrong lyric sheet off the floor. Tuomas played the opening chord again, Jukka tapped two quick hi-hat beats, and the band started again. This time, all went forward correctly. Then, after the song pulled to a halt, Tuomas struck up the keyboard intro to "Amaranth," probably the band's biggest recent hit. Elise finally got to sing the lyrics she'd started out wrong on, and coped pretty well with this one, too.</p> <br/>
<p>I'm not gonna sugarcoat it; Elise's performance wasn't exactly up to Anette's standards. She missed entries; she mangled lyrics; her timing and pitch weren't always up to par. But I don't think the crowd minded. I know I certainly didn't; I was keeping pace with her, still trying my best to project strength to her. After "Amaranth," she left the stage (possibly for some more quick rehearsals?) as the band launched into "Scaretale," for which Marco sang all the lyrics. He does sing the middle section of that song, where it goes all <em>humppa</em>; as the song got past the first bit, he quipped, "Okay, now we're coming to the part of the song I know." There are plenty of instrumental breaks in the song, too, so the vocal performance wasn't as critical. And we were there to help him, too.</p> <br/>
<p>Troy Donockley took the stage, joking, "I had to change my Pampers earlier," referring to his initial delivery of the bad news about Anette. The band launched into a familiar (to us) three-measure guitar intro, and Marco and we all sang together, "<em>I want my tears back!</em>" For this one, Marco didn't try to sing Anette's parts, but we in the audience filled in...then Marco joined us for his half of the chorus, and the lines, "I want my tears back! I want my tears back <em>now!</em>" Then Marco and Emppu traded their guitars for acoustic ones, Jukka came forward and sat on a box he could pound, and the band, Troy included, started the folk-metal track "The Islander." Marco threatened those of us with cellphones right before the song, then had us all whip 'em out, light the screens, and raise them in the air. We sang with him as he spun the tale of an elderly seaman now tending a lighthouse; I even found myself singing something closer to Anette's vocal line of the chorus, as if to summon her spirit to be with us. The band launched into an extended instrumental entry to "Last of the Wilds," on which there are no vocals, so no real difference there.</p> <br/>
<p>The next track, "Planet Hell," had us singing, not Anette's parts, but <em>Tarja's</em> parts that Anette would have sung had she been there. Fortunately, I was able to take out my phone, call up the track, and display the lyrics so I didn't make a mistake. "Save yourself a penny for the ferryman, save yourself and let them suffer!" we all sang, then Marco stopped as I and others continued, "In hope, in love, this world ain't ready for the Ark..." For friends of McKenzie, a fan who had passed on (there were people in the audience wearing T-shirts with "RIP McKenzie" on the front and "Nightwish Fan" on the back, the band played what Marco called "a world premiere, we've never done this one live before," the track "Rest Calm." He omitted Anette's lyrics in that version, too, but we picked them right up.</p> <br/>
<p>For the next song, Marco called Elise back out, as well as Troy. Now, Nightwish has been doing "Nemo" on this tour, but as an acoustic version (which I've seen on YouTube; it was powerful yet understated). Tonight, however, they launched into the regular live version, bobbled lyrics and all. But at least I got to chant "NIGHT-wish! NIGHT-wish! NIGHT-wish!" over the bridge, just as I had in 2008 with Anette leading us all.</p> <br/>
<p>The band finished with Troy playing a short Irish selection called "Mug of Brown Ale," and, I swear, Elise started <em>dancing an Irish jig</em> there on stage! Okay, <em>Riverdance</em> it was...not, but the crowd liked it. This segued into their Gary Moore cover, "Over the Hills And Far Away," and one last opportunity for us to raise our voices with Nightwish in song. Many hugs were exchanged on stage, as the band--all <em>seven</em> of them, counting both Elise and Alissa--took a bow. They exited to the sounds of cheers and the "Imaginaerum" overture, and we exited the theater to find our way home, after what felt to me like the closest thing to a "religious experience" I'd felt.</p> <br/>
<p>So what conclusions can be drawn from this for mortal man? Three of them, in my opinion:</p> <br/>
<ol> <br/>
<li>Elise demonstrated some serious <em>balls</em> when she stepped in to fill Anette's shoes tonight. The music can be difficult, and it showed in her performance, but she worked the crowd well and had all of us firmly behind her. I have no problem bestowing on her the title of "honorary member of Nightwish."</li> <br/>
<li>Of course, she had the support of the fans all the way. And Denver Nightwish fans--Denver fans of <em>anything</em>, really--are <strong><em>the most fucking awesome fans on Earth</em></strong>. No, not just me, or my friends. <em>All</em> of them.</li> <br/>
<li>And, at the end of the day, Nightwish isn't really about Anette. <em>Or</em> Tarja. It's about the <em>music</em>. <em>Tuomas'</em> music, to be precise. He is the creative center, the <em>logos</em>, the Owl and the Dead Boy incarnate. The music normally speaks through Anette, as it once spoke through Tarja, but it spoke through Elise tonight--and through all of us. And I think people are starting to Get It now, and rise above the petty lead-singer squabbles to appreciate what we've been given.</li> <br/>
</ol> <br/>
<p>Now...when does <em>Imaginaerum</em> (the movie) play in the States?</p><br/>
<p><strong>UPDATE:</strong> Welcome, readers from Russia, Finland, and Italy! Please see my <a href="http://www.erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/nightwish_minus_one_the_aftermath">followup post</a> as well.</p></p>
http://erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/you_autocomplete_meYou Autocomplete MeErbo2012-09-28T03:50:05-06:002012-09-28T03:50:05-06:00
<p><p>So, John Scalzi got this <a href="http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/09/27/for-no-especially-good-reason-i-put-each-letter-of-the-alphabet-into-my-web-browser-and-posted-the-link-it-autocompleted-to/">weird idea</a> to put each letter of the alphabet into his Web browser and see what Autocomplete came up with for each letter. Hmm, wonder what happens if I do that?<br/>
</p> <br/>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.agony-unleashed.com/">A</a></strong> - Agony Unleashed, an <em><a href="http://www.eveonline.com/">EVE Online</a></em> corporation that specializes in training people to fly PvP. That's one thing I can't do; I may need the class...</p> <br/>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.billboard.com/">B</a></strong> - Billboard.com. This is probably related to that news story I put in <a href="http://www.erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/quick_hits_issue_8">Quick Hits</a> about Def Leppard.</p> <br/>
<p><strong><a href="http://captainawkward.com/">C</a></strong> - CaptainAwkward.com. I ran across this advice site via Scalzi, in fact, and it made some interesting reading.</p> <br/>
<p><strong><a href="http://divine-ascension.com/">D</a></strong> - Divine Ascension's web site. I'll be wearing one of their T-shirts to the Nightwish concert. Their lead guitarist, Karl Szulik, was the one that mailed it to me all the way from Australia.</p> <br/>
<p><strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/">E</a></strong> - Wikipedia (from the "en." at the beginning of their domain name meaning the English version). Come on, you know <em>you </em>get sucked into this site, too.</p> <br/>
<p><strong><a href="https://www.facebook.com/">F</a></strong> - Facebook. Love it or hate it, you can't ignore it. Zuckered again...</p> <br/>
<p><strong><a href="http://en.gravatar.com/">G</a></strong> - Gravatar.com. I think this beat out Google because I was trying to check something related to my login there.</p> <br/>
<p><strong><a href="http://hamradio.com/">H</a></strong> - Ham Radio Outlet's Web site. There's a store not to far from where I live. Last thing I bought from there was a power supply for Sabrina's dad...</p> <br/>
<p><strong><a href="http://id.secondlife.com/">I</a></strong> - Second Life's OpenID Web site, id.secondlife.com. Don't ask me why...</p> <br/>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.jwz.org/">J</a></strong> - Jamie Zawinski's web site. Old time hacker turned nightclub impresario. Also in the blogroll.</p> <br/>
<p><strong><a href="http://kittyhooch.com/">K</a></strong> - KittyHooch.com, makers of fine high-grade Oregon catnip toys for your cat. Penny loves it.</p> <br/>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.lewisiana.nl/">L</a></strong> - Lewisiana.nl, a site with essays about C.S. Lewis. Includes keys to obscure references found in the Space Trilogy (<em>Out of the Silent Planet</em>, <em>Perelandra</em>, <em>That Hideous Strength</em>).</p> <br/>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.mycokerewards.com/">M</a></strong> - My Coke Rewards. This must be its way of guilt-tripping me into entering the codes from all those bottle tops, right?</p> <br/>
<p><strong><a href="http://nightwish.com/">N</a></strong> - Nightwish's Web site. No explanation necessary. \m/</p> <br/>
<p><strong><a href="http://opticalmasters.com/">O</a></strong> - Optical Masters, the office where I get my eye exams and contacts.</p> <br/>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.popehat.com/">P</a></strong> - Popehat. Though I haven't put it into bookmarks, I still visit it frequently...and even blogrolled it.</p> <br/>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.quora.com/">Q</a></strong> - Quora. Amazing, the mileage I've gotten out of some of the answers I've given to questions there...</p> <br/>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org/">R</a></strong> - The Raspberry Pi Foundation. Unsurprising, since I've been visiting it regularly since I decided to plunk down the $35 and get a Model B. This will no doubt make for some blog material later.</p> <br/>
<p><strong><a href="http://subversion.apache.org/">S</a></strong> - Subversion's Web site at Apache. This stems from the "<a href="http://www.erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/the_erbonomically_correct_setup">setup</a>" post I did, where I wanted to get everything linked. Oddly enough, a friend of mine used to own the actual subversion.com domain...she used it for advertising her goth club, called "Resurrection."</p> <br/>
<p><strong><a href="http://theoatmeal.com/">T</a></strong> - The Oatmeal. Funny as hell, and awesome as hell for raising a shit-ton of money to build a Nikola Tesla museum on the site of his Wardenclyffe laboratory.</p> <br/>
<p><strong><a href="http://usesthis.com/">U</a></strong> - The Setup (usesthis.com). They put my aforementioned "setup" post in their "Community" section. They are awesome; check them out.</p> <br/>
<p><strong><a href="http://venice.sourceforge.net/">V</a></strong> - The old Web site for the Venice Web Communities System at SourceForge. I really, really, <em>really </em>need to rewrite that one of these days...</p> <br/>
<p><strong><a href="http://wilwheaton.net/">W</a></strong> - Wil Wheaton's Web site. He's just this guy, you know? Oh, and don't be a dick.</p> <br/>
<p><strong><a href="http://xkcd.com/">X</a></strong> - XKCD. I agree with Scalzi here, stick figures ARE awesome.</p> <br/>
<p><strong><a href="http://youdidntbuildthat.tumblr.com/">Y</a></strong> - "You Didn't Build That," a Tumblr site devoted to mocking a certain infamous quote from a certain Hussein al-Chicago. It seems to have languished recently, though. Guess the joke has gotten old by now.</p> <br/>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/">Z</a></strong> - ZeroHedge, one of the two sites I depend on for the <em>real </em>lowdown on financial news.</p> <br/>
<p>Try it for yourself!</p></p>
http://erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/quick_hits_issue_8Quick Hits, Issue 8Erbo2012-09-26T23:07:47-06:002012-09-26T23:07:48-06:00
<p><ul> <br/>
<li>Def Leppard, engaged in a dispute with their former label Universal Music Group over digital royalties from their classic hits, have gone back into the studio to <a href="http://www.billboard.com/news/def-leppard-recording-forgeries-of-old-hits-1007484752.story" target="_blank"><em>re</em>-record those hits</a> and make <em>those</em> tracks available for download. They've released two so far: "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008593C62/ref=docs-os-doi_0" target="_blank">Rock of Ages</a>" (from <em>Photograph</em>) and "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008593MLC/ref=docs-os-doi_0" target="_blank">Pour Some Sugar On Me</a>" (from <em>Hysteria</em>). I downloaded them; they have more of a "classic rock" sound than the originals, and the production quality is very good, even if Joe Elliot can't <em>quite</em> do the screams anymore. Overall, the best new recordings of 80's music since Journey brought in Arnel Pineda as their lead singer. Recommended.</li> <br/>
<li>Hey, I take computer security seriously--I went through a bunch of security training recently at IQNavigator--but <a href="http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2012/06/08/children-warned-name-of-first-pet-should-contain-8-characters-and-a-digit/" target="_blank"><em>this</em> is ridiculous</a>. (And a satire, obviously. Via JWZ.)</li> <br/>
<li>Recently, I kept the Weather Channel Desktop app from installing the Ask Toolbar on Sabrina's laptop. Toolbars, in general, are pretty synonymous with "viruses" these days, as <a href="http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-things-spammers-ruined-while-we-werent-paying-attention/" target="_blank">this <em>Cracked</em> article</a> will tell you. The Ask Toolbar, in particular, <a href="http://www.benedelman.org/spyware/ask-toolbars/" target="_blank">does some pretty underhanded things</a>. In brief: avoid. (The latter article comes via Jeff.)</li> <br/>
<li>If you want to have a look at some <em>deep</em> magic, code-wise, <a href="http://fabiensanglard.net/" target="_blank">Fabien Sanglard</a> is your guy. He has code reviews up for the code behind <em>Doom 3</em> and <em>Quake III Arena</em>, among many other things. (All of which is now open source. WIN.) He also has an article on there about <a href="http://fabiensanglard.net/neverGiveUp/index.php" target="_blank">doing 3D graphics in Java</a> using LWJGL...the same library <em>Minecraft</em> uses.</li> <br/>
<li><em>The More You Know:</em> Sometimes you may actually have a <em>legitimate</em> reason to send a takedown notice or a DMCA notice to a Web site. Ken at Popehat offers <a href="http://www.popehat.com/2012/07/08/how-to-write-a-takedown-request-without-running-afoul-of-the-streisand-effect/" target="_blank">his advice</a> for doing so while minimizing the risk that your request will go viral and bring the Streisand Effect into play. Basically: don't be a dickhead.</li> <br/>
<li>Amazon, which previously fought against paying state sales taxes, seems to have reversed their stance. But why? <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/business/small_business/2012/07/amazon_same_day_delivery_how_the_e_commerce_giant_will_destroy_local_retail_.html">This <em>Slate</em> article</a> alleges that what they really want to do is set up same-day delivery warehouses <em>everywhere</em>. If they can make it work, this will <em>bury</em> most retailers. (Don't worry, Sabrina, I'm sure Walmart will survive...)</li> <br/>
<li>Some of <a href="http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/07/new-programming-jargon.html">these</a> might make good new additions to ESR's Jargon File. (HT: Several IQNavigator developers.)</li> <br/>
<li>What. The. <em>Fuck.</em> <a href="http://www.examiner.com/article/portland-school-sees-racism-peanut-butter-and-jelly-sandwiches">Portland school sees racism in peanut butter and jelly sandwiches</a>. The school principal asks us to think, "What about Somali or Hispanic students, who might not eat sandwiches?" Seriously, what the fucking fuck? Last I heard, <em>anybody</em> could eat a sandwich if they want one. I swear, some of these libiots could find "racism" in a <em>dial tone</em>. (And I'm sure they'll think <em>I'm</em> racist, too, for pointing this out, because <em>shut up, you racist racisty racist!</em>)</li> <br/>
<li>This one's making the rounds: An official <a href="http://www.retronaut.co/2012/09/playboy-club-bunny-manual-1968/">Playboy Club Bunny Manual</a>, circa 1968. We could have used this with our club hostesses in Second Life...although, even though Playboy Bunny costumes are available, to my knowledge, no one has done a proper animation of the Bunny Dip.</li> <br/>
<li>Some people will do <em>anything</em> to get attention for their startup...even show up at a major trade show <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/11/evergram-founder-pitches-his-meaningful-message-packager-wearing-a-wedding-dress/">crossdressed in a wedding dress</a>. Cofounder Duncan Seay is pitching the new wedding app from his company <a href="https://www.evergram.com/">Evergram</a> (which, despite the name, is not a mashup of Evernote and Instagram), which may in fact be a good idea. But I <em>really</em> don't think he should have gone strapless here, and that train's a bit long for a trade show floor. <img src="http://erbosoft.com/blog/images/smileys/grin.gif" class="smiley" alt=":-D" title=":-D" /></li> <br/>
<li>One of the engineers from the Raspberry Pi Foundation <a href="http://www.wired.com/opinion/2012/09/raspberry-pi-insider-exclusive-sellout-to-sell-out/">writes on Wired.com</a> about the tradeoffs that went into making the $35 credit-card-sized computer, which forced them to "sellout a little to sell a lot." So far, the marketplace seems to have validated their decisions. I have one, and will be engaged in some experimentation with it.</li> <br/>
<li>Chris and Melody Byrne have been <a href="http://anarchangel.blogspot.com/2012/09/oh-for-gods-sake-not-another-one.html">adopted by a stray kitten</a>...not long after Chris got a <a href="http://anarchangel.blogspot.com/2012/09/fallout-boy-day-one.html">massive dose of radioactive iodine</a> to combat thyroid cancer. The cat seems to like Chris; I hope she doesn't absorb too much of his radioactivity, as radioactive cats have 18 half-lives. (Rimshot!)</li> <br/>
</ul></p>
http://erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/the_erbonomically_correct_setupThe Erbonomically Correct SetupErbo2012-09-26T19:16:54-06:002012-09-26T19:16:54-06:00
<p><p>Inspired by the interview site, <a href="http://usesthis.com/" target="_blank">The Setup</a>, where people talk about the stuff they use to get things done.</p> <br/>
<p><strong>Who are you, and what do you do?</strong></p> <br/>
<p>I'm Eric J. Bowersox, frequently known as "Erbo," and I code. Presently, I work for <a href="http://www.iqnavigator.com/" target="_blank">IQNavigator Inc.</a> of Greenwood Village, CO, where I work on their application for "buying services better" (management of contract and temporary labor for Fortune 500 companies), which is Java-based on an Oracle/WebLogic platform. My main focus of late has been on client integrations. Before that, I've had a wide variety of programming jobs, in fields ranging from software configuration management to finance to computer-based training to supercomputer clusters to telecommunications. I also did a stint at Durand Communications during the Internet Bubble heyday, where I worked on online community-management software. We were the ones that acquired the Electric Minds community...and, after we were ourselves acquired and decided to shut down the CommunityWare platform that EMinds ran on, I personally wrote a replacement work-alike platform (the Venice Community Management System) to keep the community alive on its own server for years afterward. (It later faltered due to hardware failure and something of a falling-out among the community.) Besides publishing about my exploits on social media, I have <a href="http://www.erbosoft.com/blog/" target="_blank">From The Erbo Files</a>, a Roller-based blog.</p> <br/>
<p>I live in Denver, with my fiancee <a href="http://gadona.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Sabrina</a>, and our cat, Her Serene Highness, Princess Penelope Ponderosa Pollyanna Peachfuzz ("Penny" to her hoomans). When I'm not coding, I do a lot of reading and a lot of gaming...not to mention a lot of driving. Fortunately, I like my 2011 Ford Taurus. Oh, and I argue conservative politics on occasion. <img src="http://erbosoft.com/blog/images/smileys/grin.gif" class="smiley" alt=":-D" title=":-D" /></p> <br/>
<p><strong>What hardware do you use?</strong></p> <br/>
<p>My personal desktop machine is a custom-built job, as it has been since my first PC-XT back in 1989. Its current configuration is based around an <a href="http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3/M4A79XTD_EVO/" target="_blank">ASUS M4A79XTD EVO</a> motherboard, slightly dated yet versatile. It holds an AMD Phenom II X6 1100T hex-core processor and 16 gigs of RAM; these upgrades were motivated by my desire to compile Android from source. An nVidia GeForce GTX 560 drives a pair of Acer 21-inch displays; with the 19" LCD TV immediately to their left, my computer desk somewhat resembles the bridge of the USS <em>Enterprise</em>. The system has three physical hard drives and two optical drives, which may seem excessive, but there's a method to my madness. Since I dual-boot the machine, I felt the safest configuration was one that gave each OS its own physical spindle, plus one that contains "data" partitions for both, to keep an OS upgrade from hosing critical data. As for the optical drives, one is a read-only DVD drive, the other is a DVD burner, to give me the capability to do physical copies direct without imaging. The keyboard and mouse are gaming-oriented; a <a href="http://www.logitech.com/en-us/keyboards/keyboards/g19-keyboard-for-gaming" target="_blank">Logitech G19</a> keyboard complete with its own built-in LCD, and a <a href="http://www.corsair.com/en/vengeance-gaming/vengeance-gaming-mice/vengeance-m60-performance-fps-laser-gaming-mouse.html" target="_blank">Corsair Vengeance M60</a> gaming mouse. (I used to use a <a href="http://warmouse.com/" target="_blank">WarMouse Meta</a>, but, despite the appeal of 18 buttons, the thing felt cheaply built and started breaking down under heavy use; the Corsair is more solid.) And, while I stick with the motherboard's onboard sound, I do run it through a decent speaker system, a <a href="http://store.cambridgesoundworks.com/" target="_blank">Cambridge SoundWorks</a> PCWorks subwoofer-satellite system. (When I need a headset, I use a <a href="http://www.sennheiserusa.com/headset-phones-music-headset-pc-music-500912" target="_blank">Sennheiser PC131</a>. Sennheiser is my headphone brand of choice; I picked that up from my ex-wife.)</p> <br/>
<p>I run a local server, too, shared with Sabrina for file storage purposes, and also to give me a development server and testbed. This machine is basically a standard "cheap" Compaq tower; the only modification I made to it was to pull out the stock hard drive and install dual 1-terabyte disks, most of which are devoted to a RAID-1 mirrored data partition. I first used this configuration style when setting up our "new" Electric Minds server, and it saved our bacon on several occasions, so I went with it here, too.</p> <br/>
<p>My personal laptop is an <a href="http://www.cnet.com/laptops/asus-k50i-rbbgr05/4507-3121_7-34024545.html" target="_blank">ASUS K501</a> I picked up from Best Buy when I was flush with bonus money; it may not be much, but it works pretty well for my purposes. It has 4 gigs of RAM, a Pentium T4500 dual-core CPU, and a 500-gig drive that I repartitioned to dual-boot.</p> <br/>
<p>At IQNavigator, all our "workstations" are Dell laptop machines with docking stations; this makes it easy to haul our machines into a meeting or take work home, and, among developers, it encourages <em>ad hoc</em> pair programming as needed. The one they issued me is a <a href="http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/latitude-e6410/pd" target="_blank">Dell Latitude E6410</a>, sporting an Intel Core i5 quad-core CPU and 8 gigs of RAM. Developers get an SSD drive, primarily because that's the only way we can get a build of the software in any reasonable amount of time. The dock on my desk connects to a pair of Acer monitors and a proper keyboard and mouse, as well as the wired Ethernet; we have wireless for when we're in meetings or otherwise away from our desks, too.</p> <br/>
<p>I also have a number of pieces of hardware I use for testing, special purposes, or just goofing around: an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLPC_XO-1" target="_blank">OLPC XO-1</a> from the <a href="http://one.laptop.org/" target="_blank">One Laptop Per Child</a> project, a <a href="http://cr-48.wikispaces.com/" target="_blank">Google Cr-48 Chromebook</a>, a <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/p/nook-color-barnes-noble/1100437663" target="_blank">Barnes & Noble Nook Color</a> (which I use as both an E-reader and a jackleg Android tablet), and a <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org/" target="_blank">Raspberry Pi</a>. And, finally, one of the most useful pieces of hardware I have is, of course, my <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_4S" target="_blank">iPhone 4S</a> 64 Gb.</p> <br/>
<p><strong>And the software?</strong></p> <br/>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux" target="_blank">Linux</a> predominates among the OSs I use; it's the sole OS on three of the above-named devices, dual-boots with Windows on two of them, and Linux variants (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Chrome_OS" target="_blank">Chrome OS</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system)" target="_blank">Android</a>) run two more. The distribution varies, though. The desktop and personal laptop use <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/" target="_blank">Ubuntu</a>, and were just upgraded from 10.04 to 12.04 recently; the new user interface took some getting used to, but I don't anticipate any real problems. The server uses <a href="http://www.centos.org/" target="_blank">CentOS</a>, with which I was very familiar during my years working on supercomputers (it was the default distro we shipped on cluster nodes, unless a customer really <em>wanted</em> to pay for Red Hat or SuSE). The OLPC, of course, uses its own Fedora variant with the custom "Sugar" user interface, and the Pi uses the standard "Raspbian" Debian distro for ARM (for the moment, anyway--you can change out the entire software environment of the Pi by just changing its SD card).</p> <br/>
<p>The machines that run Windows all run Windows 7 64-bit. I will <em>not</em> upgrade to Windows 8 if I can possibly help it; Microsoft has completely crapped up the user interface on "regular" computers in order to try and make it look better on tablets. To me, this is the wrong approach; tablets is tablets and PCs is PCs, and never the twain shall meet. But Windows 7 is pretty much "the new XP" around here. We completely skipped the Vista debacle, and have no regrets about doing so. Perhaps the odd-numbered Windows releases are the better ones, in the same way the even-numbered <em>Star Trek</em> films were better...</p> <br/>
<p>The Nook Color is a special case. Its built-in OS is a variant of Android 2.2 Froyo with a custom UI...but the hardware can boot a different OS on a MicroSD card without touching the onboard flash. This I have done; I have custom boot cards for Android 2.3 Gingerbread and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Both are the <a href="http://www.cyanogenmod.com/" target="_blank">CyanogenMod</a> versions of the OS, so they're fairly stock with some useful add-ons.<br/>
</p> <br/>
<p>As you might imagine, I've standardized on <a href="https://www.google.com/chrome/">Google Chrome</a> as my browser of choice, and I use a number of pieces of the Google ecosystem as well, such as <a href="http://mail.google.com/">GMail</a> and <a href="http://drive.google.com/">Google Drive</a>. My standardized office suite is <a href="http://www.openoffice.org/">OpenOffice.org</a>, possibly becoming <a href="http://www.libreoffice.org/">LibreOffice</a> soon. For a "local" mail client to manage my ISP mail account (which runs through my server, using <a href="http://www.postfix.org/">Postfix</a>, <a href="http://www.dovecot.org/">Dovecot</a>, and <a href="http://www.fetchmail.info/">Fetchmail</a>), I use <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/">Thunderbird</a> on Windows and <a href="http://projects.gnome.org/evolution/">Evolution</a> on Linux. Of course, at work, they've bought heavily into the Microsoft ecosystem; it's all Office 2007 and Outlook, all the time. (Which we're actually running through <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/Office365">Office 365</a> these days.) At least they don't force us to use Internet Asploder, except for certain sites that require it; our standard browser is actually <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/">Firefox</a>.</p> <br/>
<p>Increasingly, I've found myself using a number of cloud-based services to handle various tasks. Besides the aforementioned GMail and Google Drive, I use <a href="http://www.evernote.com/">Evernote</a> and <a href="http://www.dropbox.com/">Dropbox</a> frequently. (This entry is being written in Evernote as a draft, for instance.) I haven't really done a lot with iCloud, though it's attached to my phone, of course.</p> <br/>
<p>And now, development tools. My main line these days is Java, and I use <a href="http://eclipse.org/">Eclipse</a> as my Java development environment. It wasn't always so; I've done a hell of a lot of work in multiple languages with just Emacs. But Eclipse has proven itself well-suited to my professional and personal Java development needs. Though Emacs is available for Windows, when I need an editor that's more powerful than Notepad, I use the open-source <a href="http://www.pnotepad.org/">Programmer's Notepad</a>. It reminds me pleasantly of the old CodeWright editor. I also have Microsoft Visual Studio, but I don't really do any Windows-specific development these days. Version control, of course, I have strong opinions about, given that I used to work on systems like that from the inside. My usual baseline is <a href="http://subversion.apache.org/">Subversion</a> these days, though I developed an attachment to <a href="http://mercurial.selenic.com/">Mercurial</a> in a previous job...but at IQNavigator, it was back to Subversion. And I really need to learn more <a href="http://git-scm.com/">Git</a>.</p> <br/>
<p>For graphics, I find <a href="http://www.gimp.org/">The GIMP</a> suits my needs well enough, as well as <a href="http://inkscape.org/">Inkscape</a> for vector-based graphics. For audio work, <a href="http://audacity.sourceforge.net/">Audacity</a> works for me. And, when I need to run virtual machines, it's in <a href="https://www.virtualbox.org/">VirtualBox</a>. You can tell I have a strong preference for open-source applications.</p> <br/>
<p>For some reason, when it comes to accessing <a href="http://www.secondlife.com">Second Life</a>, I'm not as adventurous; I usually use the bog-standard Linden Labs viewer, though I have used the <a href="http://www.phoenixviewer.com/">Phoenix Viewer</a> in certain circumstances.</p> <br/>
<p>On my phone, besides having obvious apps that act as extensions of services or Web sites I use elsewhere, I have other apps that took over for things I used to use my older phone or Palm PDA for. Because I have a <em>lot</em> of passwords, a key app I use is <a href="https://msevensoftware.com/msecure_ios">mSecure</a>, a password manager application that works on both the desktop and phone, synchronizes via Dropbox, and stores everything encrypted with a master password key. Also worthy of note is <a href="http://appcubby.com/gas-cubby/">Gas Cubby</a>, an app that keeps track of my car's gas mileage and expenses.</p> <br/>
<p><strong>What would be your dream setup?</strong></p> <br/>
<p>It would probably be built around an <a href="http://mwelab.com/index.php/en/products/emperor-1510" target="_blank">Emperor 1510</a> ergonomic work environment from MWE Labs, or perhaps the <a href="http://mwelab.com/index.php/en/products/emperor-200" target="_blank">Emperor 200</a>, though I'd want to change out the specs of the included PC. Those babies have overhead monitor arms that can support three 24" displays. Throw in a high-end surround-sound speaker setup, and you've essentially got the ultimate gaming/coding environment. But I'd want this work environment to be located in a workshop/laboratory like <a href="http://www.duntemann.com/12vtubes/shoptips.htm" target="_blank">Jeff's</a>, so I'd have benches and other facilities for doing hardware experimentation.</p> <br/>
<p>As for the computer at the core of this system? Stuff it full of as many CPU cores, as much RAM, and as many disks as you can manage; boot it off an SSD for added speed. Dual-boot it, of course. ;Then hook it via Gigabit Ethernet to a big NAS for even more storage, and to a rack full of servers to act as my own private supercomputer cluster (or <a href="http://opensimulator.org">OpenSimulator</a> grid, whichever). Throw in a powerful Ultrabook I could dual-boot, and a powerful Mac of some sort (Macbook, Mini, iMac, doesn't matter) so I could try my hand at iOS coding. And throw some nice hardware Sabrina's way, too, so she doesn't get jealous. <img src="http://erbosoft.com/blog/images/smileys/smile.gif" class="smiley" alt=":-)" title=":-)" /></p></p>
http://erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/space_space_gotta_go_toSpace! Space! Gotta Go To Space!Erbo2012-09-26T00:21:18-06:002012-09-26T00:21:18-06:00
<p><p>I may never get around to doing a full report on our vacation that we took in July, but I do want to write about a few things from that trip...especially the second day, when we visited the <a href="http://www.cosmo.org/" target="_blank">Kansas Cosmosphere</a> in Hutchinson, KS. And, if you're a space buff like me, you <em>need</em> to visit it. Let's just say it's everything I hoped it would be...and <em>more</em>.</p> <br/>
<p>When we got there, it was pretty early, so the foyer (dominated by an SR-71 Blackbird and a mock-up of the side of the Shuttle <em>Endeavour</em>) was pretty empty. When I paid for our "All-Day Mission Passes," they were even nice enough to scrounge up a motor scooter for Sabrina, not unlike the carts she rides through the aisles of Walmart, so she could enjoy everything, too. We took the elevator downstairs to The Hall of Space, which covers aspects of spaceflight from the German V-1 and V-2 programs up through to the present day, with examples of real hardware or very-exacting replicas all along the way...including many examples of Soviet hardware, such as an unflown backup for the original <em>Sputnik</em> satellite and original <em>Vostok</em> and <em>Voskhod</em> capsules. American hardware is also well-represented, with such items as Gus Grissom's <em>Liberty Bell 7</em> capsule (dredged up from the ocean floor and painstakingly restored), the <em>Gemini X</em> capsule, an honest-to-God <em>Titan II</em> booster rising majestically into the Kansas sky in an outdoor display, and the <em>Odyssey</em> command module from <em>Apollo 13</em>. That area, I think, impressed me the most, and was about where I started to inwardly lose my shit; aside from looking right into <em>Odyssey</em>, past the control panel and seats into the lower equipment bay, I entered one of the original Apollo "white rooms," complete with the signature of longtime pad leader Gunther Wendt ("I vonder vhere Gunther Wendt?"<img src="http://erbosoft.com/blog/images/smileys/wink.gif" class="smiley" alt=";)" title=";)" />, and sat at some of the original Mission Control consoles...It felt like I was watching <em>The Right Stuff</em> and <em>Apollo 13</em> all over again. Unlike most of the people walking through these halls, <em>I knew what I was looking at</em>. It really brought home to me how much we've accomplished...and how much we've lost as short-sighted politicians continually prioritize other things ahead of the dreams of humanity.</p> <br/>
<p>The cheeseburgers in the Lunar Port food court were surprisingly good, at least as good as some I'd eaten in Hana on Maui. We saw the <em>Tornado Alley</em> IMAX movie, in a domed theater like that back at the Reuben H. Fleet Space Theatre in San Diego, and it was most impressive; Sabrina certainly liked it. (Featuring narration by Bill Paxton!) She also got a kick out of the planetarium show, demonstrating the night sky as viewed in all seasons from Hutchinson, which was narrated with plenty of good humor and leavened with some nice pop music clips, including Clint Black's rendition of Monty Python's "Galaxy Song." Then, in "Dr. Goddard's Lab," we got some impressive explanations and <em>live demonstrations</em> of rocket technology, delivered with all the zeal of a <em>Mythbusters</em> episode by a young man who clearly has a lot of knowledge of, and love for, the material. I spent entirely too much on souvenirs and gifts in the Cargo Bay gift shop, which was <em>totally</em> worth it, and nearly ran my iPhone's batteries dead taking about half a gigabyte worth of pictures. All mission objectives complete!</p> <br/>
<p>I can't even <em>begin</em> to describe <em>everything</em> there. You need to go there and see for yourself. But, until then, I've assembled an extensive <a href="https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3796374945524.2144797.1161745161&type=3&l=e9424b225a" target="_blank">album of pictures</a>, on Facebook and annotated for your enlightenment, that you can gawk at. Thatisall.</p></p>
http://erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/quick_hits_issue_7Quick Hits, Issue 7Erbo2012-07-01T17:11:13-06:002012-07-01T17:11:13-06:00
<p><ul> <br/>
<li>A USB drive <a href="http://www.meninos.us/products.php?product=FLASH.DRIVE">shaped like a tampon</a>. <em>Write your own punchline!</em> (Note the sizes it comes in, too: "Light Flow" (2 Gb), "Moderate Flow" (4 Gb), and "Heavy Flow" (8 Gb). Via <a href="http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/05/tampon-shaped_u.html">Bruce Schneier</a>, who I think is just about as dumbstruck as most people that this exists.)</li> <br/>
<li>New programming language: <a href="http://fdiv.net/2012/04/01/objectivist-c">Objectivist-C</a>. Every object is an end in itself, not a means to the ends of others. (This is one of those jokes that walks a fine line. Hardcore Randites will probably start screeching <em>"That's not funny!"</em>, while most people, who know nothing about Ayn Rand or Objectivism, will scratch their heads and go <em>"Huh?"</em> Via Eric S. Raymond on Google+.)</li> <br/>
<li>There's new malware, "<a href="http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/05/flame/">Flame</a>," infecting a number of computer systems, primarily in Iran and the Middle East, which may be part of a cyberwar effort against the outlaw nation. What's surprising is how <em>big</em> it is; it's 20 megabytes when fully-configured, and sports such advanced features as <a href="http://www.sqlite.org/">SQLite3</a> databases, a plug-in architecture with about 20 different plug-ins, and code written in the <a href="http://www.lua.org/">Lua</a> scripting language. The fact that it can consume that much memory and storage (and, presumably, commensurate CPU cycles and network bandwidth), and yet go <em>unnoticed</em>, is just...mindboggling. (Via <a href="http://www.dailypundit.com/2012/05/28/a-new-kind-of-flame-war/">Bill Quick</a>)</li> <br/>
<li>Airlines are imposing <a href="http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/31123162/detail.html">higher fees</a> on families who want to make sure they sit together on flights. Honestly, at this point, are they just sitting around and brainstorming ways to make people want to <em>actively avoid</em> using their services? Between the <em>Transportmittel Sturmabteilung</em>, the nickel-and-diming to death, and the piss-poor-and-getting-poorer service, I know <em>I</em> wouldn't fly anywhere unless I had no other choice. (And the new Taurus will make road trips a bit more expensive...but also a <em>lot</em> more comfortable.)</li> <br/>
<li>I got a postcard in the mail purportedly from the Poway High Alumni Publication Office, asking me to call and update my information for an upcoming directory. The postcard turned out to actually be from a company called Harris Connect, which apparently gloms onto high school and college alumni associations and, when alumni call in, gives them the hard sell to buy very expensive directories...and, if you change your mind, good luck getting your money back afterwards. Any company that has Google Autocomplete adding "scam" after their name as the top search suggestion is probably <em>not</em> one you want to do business with. <a href="http://joshinggnome.wordpress.com/2007/03/30/i-am-apoplectic-in-my-rage-at-harrisconnect-and-boston-university/">Here's an example</a>. (Besides, the postcard had my last name misspelled. Trust me, <em>nobody</em> from Poway is likely to misspell <em>my</em> last name...) The postcard went straight into the shredder.</li> <br/>
<li>I haven't spoken up about some Internet assholes that have shown up recently, but if you want to read about assholes, Ken at Popehat has the scoop on them, particularly <a href="http://www.popehat.com/tag/kimberlin/">this asshole</a> and <a href="http://www.popehat.com/tag/oatmeal-v-funnyjunk/">that asshole</a>. You're welcome.</li> <br/>
<li>Well, that about wraps it up for RIM. The Blackberry maker is <a href="http://www.therecord.com/news/business/article/746194--rim-layoffs-have-begun">laying off 5000 people</a> and <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/28/rim-q1-2013-results/">delaying the launch of BB10 OS to 2013</a>. At this point, BB10 is about three years late already, and any further delay is just going to affect the depth at which RIM gets buried.</li> <br/>
<li>The bad news for RIM comes on the heels of a <em>stunning</em> development: A hacker has gotten (some) iOS apps to <a href="http://crackberry.com/developer-gets-ios-apps-running-blackberry-real">run on a Playbook</a>. In an alternate universe in which RIM's executives didn't have their heads up their asses, they would acquire or license this technology (which is similar in some respects to the WINE Windows emulator for Linux, and is completely legal under the ruling just made in <em>Oracle v. Google</em>), open up to GAPPS for Android (which can already be done), and sell the <em>shit</em> out of these capabilities, saying, "Blackberry runs all your favorite iOS and Android apps...and runs them <em>better!</em>" That'd even be <em>true</em>, thanks to the underlying QNX kernel technology of Playbook 2.0/BB10. That would be a kick in the crotch to both Apple and Google, and might save RIM. Alas, it is not to be. (Karl Denninger, who has written extensively about RIM, <a href="http://www.market-ticker.org/akcs-www?singlepost=2962470">mentioned this</a> on his blog...after <a href="http://tickerforum.org/akcs-www?post=207280">I tipped him off to it</a>.)</li> <br/>
<li>Remember how I noted that <em>Minecraft</em> was, in some ways, like a primitive version of <em>Second Life</em>? At least one SL landowner, Desmond Shang, "the Guvnah" of steampunk community Caledon, has exploited these similarities with a promotion: rent SL land from him, <a href="http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2012/05/minecraft-steampunk.html">get free access to a private <em>Minecraft </em>server</a>. Hamlet Au of <em>New World Notes</em> describes the deal and details how other SL estate owners might do the same thing.</li> <br/>
<li>Also from NWN on <em>Minecraft</em>: If you're looking to replace the standard "Steve?" skin of your <em>Minecraft</em> "avatar" with something a bit more...<em>feminine</em>, here are <a href="http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2012/05/fabulous-minecraft-skins.html">three skins</a> that show you <em>can</em> look girly even in a low-res world. (The Xbox version doesn't have downloadable skin support, though. It's coming...eventually.)</li> <br/>
<li>XKCD has an <a href="http://xkcd.com/1074/">even simpler answer</a> to Moon-landing deniers. Simple, true...and scathing. <em>"That burn was so harsh I think you deorbited."</em></li> <br/>
</ul></p>
http://erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/mistweeted_identityMistweeted IdentityErbo2012-07-01T01:59:38-06:002012-07-01T02:09:32-06:00
<p><p>This evening, I sent out a couple of tweets that I send out from time to time:</p> <br/>
<p><img src="http://www.erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/mediaresource/844c518c-c04b-4902-92b8-ff02f0d54014" alt="Periodic Tweets" /><br /></p> <br/>
<p>This prompted some responses from my friends, like "Or <em>are</em> you?" and "Wow, you learned Turkish fast!" (No, I didn't, that was Google Translate.) But it occurs to me that I haven't adequately explained <em>why</em> these periodic broadcasts are necessary. Hence, I shall elaborate.</p> <br/>
<p> </p></p>
<p><p>It started last December, when I got a message from the guy presently using Twitter handle <a href="http://twitter.com/_erbo_">@_erbo_</a>, a guy by the name of <a href="http://erbaturergenekon.com/">Erbatur Ergenekon</a>, basically wanting me to hand the "@erbo" Twitter name over to him. Mr. Ergenekon is a sports reporter over in Istanbul, who seems to mainly cover soccer matches and Formula 1 racing. He <a href="http://erbaturergenekon.com/about/">looks like</a> a nice enough guy by all accounts, and heaven knows I have a great deal of respect for the Turkish people as a whole. (I have somewhat less respect for their current Prime Minister, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recep_Tayyip_Erdo%C4%9Fan">Recep Tayyip Erdoğan</a>, an avowed Islamist who I believe is looking to take the country in a direction that Atatürk, one of the great <a href="http://www.badassoftheweek.com/ataturk.html">badasses</a> of all time, would not have approved of.) But, with all due respect to Mr. Ergenekon, I think the record shows: <em>I was here first</em>.</p> <br/>
<p>As you probably know, my use of the name "Erbo" is as a shortening of my full name: <strong><em>ER</em></strong>ic <strong><em>BO</em></strong>wersox. I first started using this as a nickname when it was used for me as a file code by a college professor at UCSB. Mr. Ergenekon, if his Web site is correct, would have been about 3 years old at the time. I liked the name because it was short and easily prononceable; it's usually pronounced as "UR-boh," though some have used the pronunciation "AIR-boh." Naturally, one of the first things I thought of using it for was as a login name. When I joined the UCSB Campus Computer Club and got my account on the PDP-11/70 they had access to, I became "6001erbo" on that machine. Later, when I became an upper-division Computer Science student and got my first Internet account (on the Sun 3/50 network they had in the Computer Science Instructional Laboratory, or "CSIL lab" ), I became "erbo@cs.ucsb.edu". An example of my use of that handle as of about 1988 may be found <a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!topic/comp.sys.ibm.pc/tdwkf6zYI9c">here</a> in Google Groups' USENET archives. I later used the name "erbo" when I was on BIX, the BYTE Information Exchange (one of the big pre-Internet online services). Over the years, I have used it as a login name at RAIN (Santa Barbara's first ISP, a nonprofit), Silicon Beach (Santa Barbara's first <em>commercial</em> ISP), Ricochet (one of the first wireless ISPs), and now on Comcast XFINITY...not to mention various Web sites.</p> <br/>
<p>GMail didn't like "erbo" as a name; they believe that short names tend to attract more spam. So on their site and a few others, I use "obreerbo", which is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palindrome">palindromization</a> of "erbo." This was suggested to me by Harry Pike, Community Host of Electric Minds. (His user name, "maddog," lent itself well to this construction, becoming "goddammaddog." ) Facebook also wouldn't give me a page name with just "erbo," so I use "<a href="http://www.facebook.com/erbo111">erbo111</a>," where the 1's represent my birthday, November 1 or 11/1. On some other sites, such as Xbox Live, I use "ErboColo," this meaning "Erbo from Colorado." On <em>Second Life</em>, where (at the time) you had to type a "first name" and select a "last name" from a list, I picked "Evans" as my last name, for its Colorado reference (to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Evans_(governor)">John Evans</a>, 1814-1897, Governor of Colorado Territory 1862-1865; <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Evans">Mount Evans</a>, one of the states "fourteeners," is named after him), and became "Erbo Evans." My first foray into blogging was under that name, on <em>Evans Avenue Exit</em>. (Evans Avenue is named after the mountain, and does run close to where I live.) I would later use the same name on <em>EVE Online</em>. The pictures of those two avatars, along with mine, now grace the very masthead of <em>this</em> blog, which is hosted on erbosoft.com, another reference to me.</p> <br/>
<p>Twitter, though, had no problem with "erbo" as a username, and that's what I picked. And, when it comes to usernames, Twitter seems to believe (except in certain special cases involving impersonation or name squatting) that "First in time is first in right." I had noticed the odd message directed at my account that was written in Turkish, but, until Mr. Ergenekon's message, I had no idea why. (I had also posted explicitly that I wasn't Turkish.) I'm not trying to impersonate Mr. Ergenekon; I probably know much less about his field of endeavor than he does. (I doubt he knows much about software development, either, so I'm not worried about him impersonating <em>me</em>.) So he's probably stuck with the underscores. But at least now I know who to direct Turkish Twitterers to, and, every so often, I post those two messages, which I save in Evernote so it's a simple copy-paste operation.</p> <br/>
<blockquote>And now you know...the <em>rest</em> of the story. <small>Paul Harvey</small></blockquote></p>
http://erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/lost_in_the_minesLost in the MinesErbo2012-06-30T23:16:12-06:002012-06-30T23:16:12-06:00
<p><p>It's been quiet around here this past month, because, unfortunately, I've found something new that acts as a pretty good time sink. That something? <em><a href="http://www.minecraft.net/">Minecraft</a></em>.</p> <br/>
<p><img src="http://www.erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/mediaresource/6fd5b399-5a98-4dc8-a0ac-30dba5927d6a" alt="Alpha 2, a Minecraft world" /><br /></p> <br/>
<p>The game has been out for a while on PC, but I hadn't really seen it, other than hearing from Sabrina's friend Sheila about how her kids were obsessed with it. When they introduced it <a href="http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Minecraft/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802584111f7">on Xbox</a>, I had some MSPs lying around, so I downloaded it just to see what all the hubbub was about. Soon I was hooked. Sabrina complained, so I gave her the MSPs to get it on her Xbox. Soon, <em>she</em> was hooked. We then got more points for her friend Sheila to get it on <em>their</em> family's Xbox. And then <em>she</em> was hooked.</p> <br/>
<p>Are you starting to get an idea that this game might be, well, somewhat <em>compelling?</em></p> <br/>
<p>In fact, in the <a href="http://majornelson.com/2012/05/16/live-activity-for-week-of-may-7th/">first activity report</a> Major Nelson released for Xbox Live after <em>Minecraft</em> was introduced, it had grown to be, not merely the most popular Arcade title on the service, but the third most popular game <em>of any type</em>, beat out only by <em>Call of Duty: Black Ops</em> and <em>Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3</em>. <a href="http://majornelson.com/2012/05/24/live-activity-for-week-of-may-14th/">One week later</a>, it had surpassed <em>Black Ops</em> to become the <em>second </em>most popular game on Xbox Live...and it still holds that position <a href="http://majornelson.com/2012/06/13/live-activity-for-week-of-june-4th/">a month later</a>. This, mind you, only marks the popularity of the Xbox 360 version of the game...not for the PC version (estimated sales over 6 million) or the "Pocket Edition" available for iOS and Android devices (the iOS version still ranks as #21 on the "Top Paid Apps" on the iOS App Store, despite selling for a much higher price than most paid apps...at $6.99, it's the only app in the top 25 to cost more than $1).</p> <br/>
<p>So how can I describe it? Tycho of <em>Penny Arcade</em> <a href="http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/9/17/">has said</a>, "I have heard [Gabriel] suggest that the game is crack, but it’s more like all of the ingredients and equipment that you need to <em>make</em> crack, which I’d say is worse." But that doesn't begin to describe it.</p> <br/>
<p>Physically, <em>Minecraft</em> is something like a "survival-adventure" type of game. Start a game, and you're dropped down in the middle of a very low-resolution world, with nothing but your bare hands. And you'd better get busy, too, because soon enough, night will fall...and that's when the monsters come out, including zombies, arrow-shooting skeletons, and the infamous Creepers, which sneak up on you and explode, taking part of the landscape--and maybe <em>you</em>--with them. To combat this, the game gives you the ability to <em>mine</em> the landscape for useful materials, and to <em>craft</em> these materials into other, useful objects (hence the name). You start by punching trees (literally) to get blocks of wood, which you can make into planks. With these planks, you can make a "crafting table," which gives you more options as to what you can make by using it. Then you can use wood planks, and sticks, which you make from planks, to make a wooden pickaxe. With this, you can mine into solid rock, turning it into cobblestone...and from that and more sticks, you can make a <em>better</em> pickaxe, allowing you to mine faster. You can also make axes, for cutting down trees more effectively, shovels, for digging into sand, dirt, or gravel, and swords, for when hiding from the monsters is not enough. Soon, you'll be making a furnace out of cobblestone, which you can fuel with wood planks or--when you find it--coal, and which can heat things to make other things (such as glass, from sand). Using all of these, you can build a shelter to keep you safe from the monsters at night.</p> <br/>
<p>As you progress, there are more things to find, such as, deep within the earth, not merely coal, but iron ore (which you smelt in a furnace to make iron ingots, which can be used to make better tools and other things), gold ore (smelted like iron ore, and also useful in crafting, though not as much as you might think), diamonds (which can be used to make powerful tools, weapons, and armor), and the mysterious "redstone" (the basis of much of <em>Minecraft</em>'s "technology," such as it is). You'll also encounter hazards like underground dungeons full of monsters (and chests of goodies), pools of water (yes, you can drown in it), and pools of hot lava (deadly if you fall into it). Cool that lava with a bucket of water, though, and you get the nearly indestructible obsidian. Mine that obsidian with a diamond pickaxe, then arrange it into a rectangular frame of the right size and light it "on fire" with a flint and steel, and you've created a portal to "The Nether," a Hell-like dimension with its own hazardous denizens, weird materials, and rewards.</p> <br/>
<p>There <em>is</em> an ultimate goal--to visit another dimension called "The End" and defeat the mighty Enderdragon contained within--but I don't know if that's even accessible via the Xbox version yet, which lags the PC version by a number of revisions. But what you <em>can</em> do is make use of the game's crafting abilities to build many things, like a primitive version of <em>Second Life</em>. Build massive buildings, huge underground complexes, road and rail systems, even primitive computers with redstone-based logic gates. The ultimate limits are only time and your imagination. (And perhaps available space...though the PC versions offer a virtually-unlimited size world, the Xbox versions impose limits on the size of a world. They're still pretty large though.)</p> <br/>
<p>You can generate as many new worlds as you like and play around in each; this is what Sabrina has done, for the most part. I, however, have chosen to spend most of my time in one world, one I created pretty early on--hence its name, "Alpha 2." Alpha 2 now even has its own <em>geographic nomenclature</em>, both for terrain features and for structures. It has a road system (complete with bridges over water) and the beginnings of a rail system, a number of buildings, and a number of mines (most of them with many signs to point the way to the exit--getting lost underground can be a <em>real</em> problem!) And there's the odd sentimental gesture:</p> <br/>
<p><img src="http://www.erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/mediaresource/f3f9658a-2b4c-4ead-8506-237c38f9804e" alt="Stephen's Point, on the Eastern Peninsula in Alpha 2." /><br /></p> <br/>
<p>This is a monument to my late brother Stephen who died four years ago. Accordingly, this geographic feature is "Stephen's Point," at the very end of the Eastern Peninsula, past the Eastern Outpost and the "End-of-the-World Mine." I think he might have appreciated it.</p> <br/>
<p><em>Minecraft</em> is a prototypical "indie game made good," similar to <em>Angry Birds</em> in that respect. Whereas <em>Angry Birds</em> came from Finland, <em>Minecraft</em> hails from Sweden, having been created by Markus "Notch" Persson and now being developed by his company <a href="http://www.mojang.com/">Mojang AB</a>. The PC version of the game is actually written in Java, which piques my interest as I'm not entirely sure how anyone would <em>do</em> that. (There are libraries involved, some of which go back to a failed Sun project to make a Java MMO.) The game, like any moderately-complex game, has <a href="http://www.minecraftwiki.net/">its own Wiki</a> to help explain everything, which makes me glad that my Xbox is right next to my desktop system.</p> <br/>
<p>What's playing it like? It can be rather relaxing to dig through the Earth, put something together, or just wander around and sightsee...which is enhanced by the soft ambient soundtrack supplied by German composer C418. It also sucks you in, kind of like <em>Civilization</em>...and those that know me should now be going, "Yikes!", as <em>Civilization</em> is one of my major gaming weaknesses, the kind of game where I can start playing at 6:00 PM, and next thing I know..."Oh, is that the <em>sun</em> rising?" This is especially true if both Sabrina and I are playing, as it's hard to stop <em>either</em> of us when we get on a roll. (Sabrina has contributed much to Alpha 2...among other things, she discovered the elusive clay blocks. Her friend Sheila has visited, too, and has her own "house" on Alpha 2, a wood structure in the middle of the Eastern Peninsula.) Take <a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/2680-Minecraft">Yahtzee's advice</a>, and give yourself a project; it helps you appreciate the game more.</p> <br/>
<p>Recommended...just don't blame me if you, too, get sucked in. See you in the mines!</p></p>
http://erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/from_eve_a_chance_encounterFrom EVE: A Chance EncounterErbo2012-05-06T00:02:36-06:002012-05-06T00:02:36-06:00
<p><p>Out for a quick raid on a Serpentis complex...but what's that other ship doing there?</p><br/>
<p>Read about it in "<a href="http://ralphadogs.wordpress.com/2012/05/06/a-chance-encounter/">A Chance Encounter</a>," on the Ralpha Dogs' corporate blog.</p></p>
http://erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/quick_hits_issue_6Quick Hits, Issue 6Erbo2012-05-03T03:02:07-06:002012-05-03T03:15:41-06:00
<p><ul> <br/>
<li>Watch as astronaut Don Pettit <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deAcVKv5_2I">demonstrates</a> some of the physics in <em>Angry Birds Space</em> by launching a Red Bird down through one of the modules in the ISS using a makeshift slingshot. In microgravity, the bird travels in a straight line, unlike the parabolic trajectory it would follow on Earth. (Pettit is <em>awesome</em>. He was up there with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Bowersox">Cousin Kenny</a> on station at the time of the <em>Columbia</em> disaster, which meant he had to fly back home in a Soyuz. Now he's <em>back</em> up there, with his own unique, quirky style, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ljFaKRTrI">doing science and still alive</a>.)</li> <br/>
<li>What the fuck, University of Florida? Seriously: what the fucking <strong><em>fuck?</em></strong> <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2012/04/22/university-of-florida-eliminates-computer-science-department-increases-athletic-budgets-hmm/">Cut the CS department</a>, in an age where engineers and developers are more in demand than they've been in a long time? You guys need your<em>heads</em> examined. (Via <a href="http://www.market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=205057">Karl Denninger</a>, who is...<em>harsher</em> on UF.) (<em><strong>Update:</strong></em> <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2012/04/25/university-of-florida-announces-plan-to-save-computer-science-department/">They're not gonna do it after all.</a> <em>GOOD!</em>)</li> <br/>
<li>Hey, Jeff! Think it would convince you to get on Twitter if you could do so <a href="http://getshacked.com/work/teletweet/">using a straight key</a>? (Via<a href="http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/22/indulge-your-steampunk-urges-by-tweeting-in-morse-code-with-your-iphone/">TechCrunch</a>.)</li> <br/>
<li>The ultimate geek watch...it's also <a href="http://www.ibuygou.com/prod/Z1-Smart-Android-2-2-Watch-Phone-GPS-WiFi-Bluetooth.html">an Android 2.2 smartphone</a>. I actually owned the "spiritual ancestor" of this watch, a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_Wrist_PDA">Fossil Abacus WristPDA</a>, which ran PalmOS 4.0 with 8 Mb of onboard storage (which is a decent amount, for Palm PDAs) and looked smart, as Fossil products often do. The main problem was that the battery life sucked balls; the thing had to be plugged in nightly to recharge, and needed a special USB charger with its own power plug. I would watch out for that issue if buying one of the Z1s. (Via Malcolm Uhl on Facebook.)</li> <br/>
<li>Seems those Occupy [foo] wankers aren't above <a href="http://injennifershead.com/?p=3842">seeking bailouts of their own when it suits them</a>. Excuse me while I point and laugh. (Via RadioMattM at the <a href="http://theconservativekitchentable.blogspot.com/">Conservative Kitchen Table</a>.)</li> <br/>
<li>What would you say about a guy that has sent hundreds of thousands of pirated DVDs overseas over the past eight years? What if I told you that that guy was <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/27/nyregion/at-92-movie-bootlegger-is-soldiers-hero.html?_r=1">a 92-year-old WWII vet</a>, sending those DVDs to combat troops in Iraq and Afghanistan? He took no money for them, and spent something like $30,000 of his own money to make and ship them. The <abbr title="Music And Film Industry Association of America">MAFIAA</abbr> isn't too pleased, but what are they gonna do to him without looking like complete jerks? (Not that that ever stopped <em>them</em>.) Meanwhile, the soldiers <em>really</em> appreciate what he's been doing. He's stopping now, not because of MAFIAA pressure, but because the troops are being pulled out. The man will surely go down as an unsung hero of these wars.</li> <br/>
<li>From fellow developer Nick Hill: One of the <a href="http://files.msurma.net/wykop/1120247/zegarek.php">oddest ways to tell time</a> you'll ever see.</li> <br/>
<li>Ladies, you may never have thought of carrying your iPhone in the <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VictoriasSecretCompartment">Victoria's Secret Compartment</a>, but, if you do, <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57423726-1/iphone-carrying-bra-is-no-bust/?tag=cnetRiver">this product</a> may be for you.</li> <br/>
<li>Speaking of carrying stuff someplace unusual, how about carrying a copy of <em>the edited sum total of human knowledge</em> in a keychain? That's the purpose behind the <a href="http://www.evr1.co/products/evrall">eVr1 Codex</a>, which dumps a load of text, including all of the English Wikipedia and a huge literary canon (full list <a href="http://www.evr1.co/pages/evr1-canon">here</a>), onto a 16 Gb MicroSD card, seals that card to withstand many hazards, and sews it into a hand-stitched leather key fob. It's mainly intended for the symbolic value, because the only way to access the information is to destroy the container (though they plan to offer an online archive of the content to buyers). It would be handy, though, if you needed to rebuild civilization from scratch, like <a href="http://www.contrapositivediary.com/?page_id=1808#DoubleN1">Jeff's colonists aboard the Starship <em>Origen</em></a> did.</li> <br/>
<li>Finally! <a href="http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/05/wicked-lasers-shark/">A frickin' shark with a frickin' laser beam attached to its head!</a> Dr. Evil would be proud.</li> <br/>
<li>DJ update (from <a href="http://www.erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/let_me_say_this_much">this post</a>): $DEITY be praised, the man found a new liver. He's recovering now, amid the well wishes of his fellow Rottie denizens. <a href="http://nicedoggie.net/?p=4682">This post</a> has the update including some comments from his missus, Deneen.</li> <br/>
</ul></p>
http://erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/quick_hits_issue_5Quick Hits, Issue 5Erbo2012-04-23T00:25:11-06:002012-05-03T03:14:28-06:00
<p><ul> <br/>
<li>Stephen T. Gordon: <a href="http://articles.boston.com/2012-02-12/ideas/31049175_1_coffee-shop-student-debt-online-student">In the future, everything will be a coffee shop</a>. A compelling point, since you can't download or order online a gathering place, or a grande cafe mocha with one or two pumps of vanilla (my Starbucks poison-of-choice). Via Glenn Reynolds.</li> <br/>
<li>One startup company, 4ormat, saved over $100,000 in its development efforts by <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/01/bootstrapped-startup-saves-over-100k-by-dropping-ie/">refusing to support Micro$oft Internet Asploder</a>. Boy, I wish IQNavigator could do the same thing...as it is, I think we've only recently deprecated support for IE6. (But then again, many of our <em>customers</em> are stuck with browsers that old, more's the pity.)</li> <br/>
<li>From Lexxi: A video of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHjpOzsQ9YI">dubstep violinist Lindsey Stirling</a>. The music has a funky, half-Eurodance, half-New Age feel to it, and Ms. Stirling is a fair dancer in addition to a decent violinist. Filmed at an <a href="http://www.icecastles.com/">ice castle in Silverthorne, Colorado</a>, that looks very Scandinavian; I thought it was Finland or Iceland or some country like that. Okay, so it's <em>not</em> metal...but it's still good. <img src="http://erbosoft.com/blog/images/smileys/smile.gif" class="smiley" alt=":-)" title=":-)" /></li> <br/>
<li>The RNC produces <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MJj4lDmxUw">an absolute gem of a video</a>, using Barack Hussein Obama's <em>own words</em> to show why he <em>must not</em> be re-elected. I say, "More, please, and faster!" Unfortunately, the RINO-NC will probably cave and refrain from producing any more such videos, lest the <em>New York Times</em> starts calling them "not helpful."</li> <br/>
<li>Former EMinder Crizz sent me a link to <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/future-is-now/palm-sized-star-trek-tech-may-closer-think-210316301.html">some handheld technology that looks straight out of <em>Star Trek</em></a>: an X-ray scanner you can hold in your hand. Maybe the inventors of this technology should get together with <a href="http://www.tricorderproject.org/">these guys</a>...a <em>real</em> tricorder could be just around the corner...</li> <br/>
<li>And speaking of science-fiction stuff, check out <a href="http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/11619">this idea</a> for a LEGO® model of one of <em>EVE Online</em>'s most iconic spaceships, the Minmatar <em>Rifter</em>-class frigate (what I refer to as "The Official Ship of Gettin' Yo' Ass in Trouble" <img src="http://erbosoft.com/blog/images/smileys/grin.gif" class="smiley" alt=":-D" title=":-D" /> ). CCP is on board with the idea, so go like it...who knows, the LEGO® people might just release the model!</li> <br/>
<li>If you're a Ford owner (like I am now), these sites might be of interest: <a href="https://www.fleet.ford.com/maintenance/vin_tools/default.asp">this one</a> will decode all the characters in your VIN and tell you what they all mean, and <a href="http://researchmaniacs.com/VIN-Number-Lookup/WindowSticker/Ford.html">this one</a> will take your VIN and show you what your actual factory window sticker looked like.</li> <br/>
<li>Three words: <a href="http://www.imore.com/2011/08/03/angry-birds-bra/"><em>Angry Birds</em> bra</a>. Sabrina wouldn't wear one, but they don't come in her size anyway. (Via Valorna Edgeworth on Facebook.)</li> <br/>
<li>At IQNavigator, we do a major release of FrontOffice (our hosted solution software) about once a month. Facebook does releases <em>far</em> more frequently than that, and to a <em>much</em> larger audience. <a href="http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2012/04/exclusive-a-behind-the-scenes-look-at-facebook-release-engineering.ars">How they do it</a> is a tangled tale involving custom PHP compilers, BitTorrent, IRC, good old-fashioned dogfooding, and perhaps the only actual Facebook "Dislike" button in existence. And a fair amount of ethanol to act as a social lubricant...</li> <br/>
<li>Meanwhile, Facebook's 140-character competitors at Twitter have <a href="http://engineering.twitter.com/2012/04/mysql-at-twitter.html">released</a> some of the enhancements they've made to MySQL for their needs. This isn't the first bit of open source Twitter has released; their Bootstrap CSS/JavaScript framework, which underpins the Erbosoft Web site itself, is very good. (Via several sources, including Bryan Glenn at IQNavigator.)</li> <br/>
<li>Want to hear what the live music in the world's coolest Nordstrom would sound like? Watch <a href="http://www.harptwins.com/">Camille and Kennerly, the Harp Twins</a>, bring modern music to life on their instruments. Their performance of "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U7TDOtfxts">Stairway to Heaven</a>" is to <em>die</em> for. (They are also third degree black belts in Tae Kwon Do, and "Distinguished Experts" in rifle marksmanship. <em>Don't</em> f**k with these ladies! <img src="http://erbosoft.com/blog/images/smileys/grin.gif" class="smiley" alt=":-D" title=":-D" /> )</li> <br/>
<li>From my fellow IQNavigator developer Ben Messer: A complete emulation of the Atari 2600 game console, <a href="http://javatari.org/"><em>written in Java</em></a>. Of course, that's no strain on modern computers (the original 2600 had a 1.19 MHz 6507 processor and 128 bytes--not megabytes or even kilobytes, <em>bytes</em>--of RAM), but it kicked off an interesting discussion of how far gaming technology has come since the late 70's/early 80's. Also, coworker Nick Hill is working on beating <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Mitchell_(electronic_sports_player)">Billy Mitchell's</a> high score. <img src="http://erbosoft.com/blog/images/smileys/smile.gif" class="smiley" alt=":-)" title=":-)" /></li> <br/>
</ul></p>
http://erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/how_banal_in_fact_isHow "Banal," In Fact, Is the Banality of Evil?Erbo2012-04-22T23:56:10-06:002012-04-23T00:00:31-06:00
<p><p>This blog post was inspired by <a href="http://www.quora.com/Ethics/How-banal-in-fact-is-the-banality-of-evil">a question I was asked to answer on Quora</a> by Robert Gluck, which consisted, in its entirety, of the phrase that makes up the title above. Herewith is my reply.</p> <br/>
<p>As has been pointed out by other respondents to this question, the phrase "the banality of evil" was coined by Hannah Arendt, as part of the subtitle to her 1963 book <em>Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil</em>. The book was her account of the 1961 trial, in Jerusalem, of Adolf Eichmann, who had worked during the Nazi era in Germany for branches of the S.S. dealing with "emigration," "relocation," and "evacuation" of Jewish populations across Europe. Many of these, of course, were convenient euphemisms for "extermination." By "banality," Arendt meant that, for people such as Eichmann who were part of the monstrous bureaucracy of death developed by the Nazis in the process of implementing their "Final Solution of the Jewish Question," dealing with matters involving the suffering and death of so many human beings became a mere matter of routine, "just another day at the office," as it were. (It is perhaps significant that Arendt herself later regretted employing the term, and noted that she would not use it if she were to write the book over again. By then, of course, it was too late, and had become a catchphrase.)</p> <br/>
<p>Eichmann, despite his many boasts to the contrary, was, it would appear, no more than a "middle manager" in this bureaucracy of death. He did not dictate the policies that were implemented; this was, of course, done, ultimately, by Hitler himself, and to a lesser extent by Heinrich Himmler, head of the S.S., and Reinhard Heydrich, head of the Reich Main Security Office, to whom he ultimately reported. Nor did he actually kill anyone; in fact, the one time he visited sites where the actual killing of Jews happened (once by firing squad, once in the gas trucks), he was sickened and shaken by the experience. Eichmann's chief concern was that of transportation, shifting Jews around from location to location, locating the trains needed to move them and making sure there were enough people aboard each train so that no trains were "wasted," and ultimately delivering them up for "resettlement in the East" (read: extermination at Auschwitz or one of the other death camps). He may have viewed the lives affected by these operations as no more than abstractions, numbers which had to be shifted around to meet the expectations of his superiors. (A similar attitude is expressed in a quotation famously misattributed to Joseph Stalin: "The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic." )</p> <br/>
<p>Edward Herman calls the development of this "banality" a process of "<a href="http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Herman%20/BanalityEvil_Herman.html">normalizing the unthinkable</a>," in which, over time, terrible, murderous acts simply become "the way things are done." This was certainly the case for Eichmann as he was made responsible for the "relocation" of Jewish populations throughout Europe. The example of Rumania is perhaps relevant here: the Rumanians were so eager to comply with Nazi demands that their land be made <em>judenrein</em> (Jew-free) that they instituted their own bloody pogroms against their own Jewish population. Eichmann was forced to scramble, quickly arranging transportation so that the Rumanian Jews could be dealt with in the usual fashion. Even though the outcome was ultimately the same, he felt that the approach taken by the Nazis, the "way things were done" to which he had become accustomed, was more "civilized."</p> <br/>
<p>It's also true that people in this kind of situation may not be aware of the ultimate consequences of their actions, though Eichmann, at least in the latter half of his career, surely was. This may include, not only those such as the Nazis, but scientists involved in the development of potentially-destructive new weaponry. In the movie <em>Real Genius</em>, for example, Mitch Taylor and Chris Knight are college students engaged in developing a powerful laser merely as a research project for Professor Jerry Hathaway. After they succeed, and Lazlo Hollyfeld confronts them with the question "What would you use that for?", their friend "Ick" Ikagami deflects the question with a joke ("Making enormous Swiss cheese?" ), Knight brushes it aside, thinking only of his own situation ("Lazlo, that doesn't matter! I respect you, but I graduated!" ) and Taylor shrugs it off: "The applications are unlimited...let the engineers figure out a use for it, that's not our concern!" Only when further prompted by Hollyfeld, and upon returning to the lab to find out their laser has been spirited away for immediate military testing, do they realize the enormity of what they've done and begin working on a plan to sabotage it. Whatever "evil" they committed in the design of what proved to be a new weapon surely was "banal" in that sense, and acquired this quality chiefly by virtue of their own ignorance. The <em>real</em> evil, it might be argued, was Hathaway's, in exploiting their labor without informing them of the ultimate purpose, after having diverted funding for the laser project towards remodeling his house. This mirrors the way the Nazis engaged in division of labor to keep groups of people in their lower echelons focused on minor details of the Final Solution instead of on the "big picture"...and corruption was also endemic in the Nazi era as well.</p> <br/>
<p>Friedrich Hayek, in his book <em>The Road to Serfdom</em>, wrote, "Advancement within a totalitarian group or party depends largely on a willingness to do immoral things. The principle that the end justifies the means, which in individualist ethics is regarded as the denial of all morals, in collectivist ethics becomes necessarily the supreme rule." This is a contributor to the development of evil as a "banality," if it is viewed as something that one is merely <em>required</em> to do to maintain and advance one's position, such as Eichmann hoping for advancement in his post, or Knight getting his college degree. People are often willing to "go along to get along," as shown by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment">Milgram's experiment</a> and Zimbardo's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment">Stanford prison experiment</a>, as well as by the Jewish Councils set up by the Nazis, which did much of the "dirty work" in selecting those who would be put on the trains for "resettlement," perhaps in the belief that they would avoid the same fate or worse thereby. (Ultimately, this would not be the case; many members of the Councils themselves were sent along to the death camps.)</p> <br/>
<p>So we have a number of conditions: the participants in evil acts are either ignorant of the consequences of their actions or are willing to suppress or "abstract away" what knowledge they have of them, their actions have been "normalized" by the organization they work in, and they view their actions as necessary to maintain or advance their own position, or to further their own goals. Under these circumstances, yes, evil can become quite "banal" indeed. It is worth noting, in closing, an observation that Isaac Asimov once made in recounting a conversation with Fritz Leiber: a truly "intelligent" villain never just shouts "I'm a wicked bad guy!", he is never a "villain" in his <em>own</em> eyes. Eichmann certainly was not; he even professed that he had been trying to <em>save</em> Jews by his actions, even as he acknowledged that he was to be made something of a scapegoat for the Nazi regime by his trial and execution. Even one of the most clichéd villains of all time, Darth Vader, would tell Luke Skywalker that his ultimate aim was to "bring <em>order</em> to the Galaxy," much as the Nazis wanted to bring "order" to the world. Their examples must stand as a cautionary tale for us all.</p></p>
http://erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/music_to_throw_the_goat2Music To Throw The Goat To: Within TemptationErbo2012-04-19T20:50:06-06:002012-04-19T20:50:06-06:00
<p><p>The second element of my "trinity" of symphonic metal hails from the Netherlands, which is home to a fair number of good symphonic-metal bands. Unlike Nightwish, they approached it from a gothic-metal background, but, like Nightwish, they've taken their art in a bit of an unusual concept-album direction. They're <a href="http://www.within-temptation.com/">Within Temptation</a>, they're the biggest band to come out of the Netherlands, and the fact that there's a couple at the center of the band should help ensure that they're around for a long time.</p> <br/>
<p>More below the fold.</p></p>
<p><p> </p> <br/>
<p>Within Temptation were founded in 1996 by longtime couple Robert Westerholt, formerly guitarist for The Circle, and Sharon den Adel, mezzo-soprano vocalist and veteran performer. (den Adel previously worked as a fashion designer, and still uses these talents to design both her costumes and the band's merchandise. The fact that there's a Facebook group entitled "<a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2215850620">I Want Sharon den Adel's Dresses</a>" should attest to her talent.) Westerholt recruited former bandmates Jeroen van Veen on bass and Michael Papenhove on guitar, and with Martijn Westerholt on keyboards and Dennis Leeflang (later Ivar de Graaf) on drums, the initial lineup was complete, and they were signed by DSFA Records shortly thereafter.</p> <br/>
<p>Their first album, <em>Enter</em> (1997) was heavily gothic in tone, drawing influence from doom metal and employing "death grunt" vocals in a "beauty and the beast" style, but it propelled the band to recognition in their native country, and for the next couple of years, they toured, as well as recording the 1998 EP <em>The Dance</em> which further refined their style. They took a bit of a sabbatical the following year, among other things, building their own studio.</p> <br/>
<p>In 2000, they returned to touring, and released their second album, <em>Mother Earth</em>. This started their move away from the "gothic" sound and towards a more "symphonic" style, with den Adel's ethereal vocals and production quality emphasized. The second single from the album is what started their rise to international fame:</p> <br/>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/qmLIE6ULtyU" frameborder="0"></iframe> <br/>
<p>(This is now their "signature song," and their typical concert closer.)</p> <br/>
<p>Sadly, this was followed by some lineup shuffling the following year; Stephen van Haestregt replaced de Graaf on drums, Ruud Jolie was brought in as another guitarist, and, notably, Martijn Westerholt contracted mononucleosis and had to bow out, replaced by Martijn Spierenburg. (Martijn Westerholt would later go on to found Delain, so he landed on his feet.) The band rode the success of <em>Mother Earth</em> for awhile, rereleasing it on GUN Records across a wider swath of Europe and winning a couple of major awards, the Silver Harp and the Edison Award.</p> <br/>
<p>Their success was multiplied further by the release of <em>The Silent Force</em> in 2004, which instantly hit #1 in the Netherlands, charted well across Europe, and spawned four singles, including this one, which is probably one of their most-recognized songs:</p> <br/>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ELpmwVQfAGQ" frameborder="0"></iframe> <br/>
<p>Another single off the album really highlights den Adel's ethereal vocals...and her pimped-out dresses:</p> <br/>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/PojE1LTswV0" frameborder="0"></iframe> <br/>
<p>Following this, they began touring Europe, headlining the Bloodstock festival in the UK and even doing a show in Dubai. They won the Dutch Pop Prize for best Dutch pop contribution, and the Dutch Export Prize for best-selling Dutch artists outside the Netherlands, in 2006.</p> <br/>
<p>Their next album, <em>The Heart of Everything</em>, was released in 2007, and also debuted at #1 in the Netherlands, and it would reach #2 in Belgium and Finland and the Top 10 in eight countries altogether. It was also the first of their albums to be released in the U.S., by Roadrunner Records, which would reissue <em>Mother Earth</em> and <em>The Silent Force</em> there as well soon thereafter. Five singles would be released from this album, including this one, featuring guest vocalist Keith Caputo of Life of Agony:</p> <br/>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/N8ywUxqfesg" frameborder="0"></iframe> <br/>
<p>This track, however, may be my favorite from the album:</p> <br/>
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/JwWRUVVadQg" frameborder="0"></iframe> <br/>
<p>(This is a fan-made video, and uses clips from a number of other Within Temptation videos.)</p> <br/>
<p>Soon thereafter, they embarked on their first U.S. tour, supporting another symphonic-metal band, the Italian band Lacuna Coil. They also filmed a live show at the Ahoy accompanied by the Metropole Orchestra, which was released as the live DVD/Blu-ray <em>Black Symphony</em>. Following the extensive tour after this album, the band took a much-needed break, reconvening in 2010 for another tour. Meanwhile, Robert Westerholt hinted that their next album would be "kind of a concept."</p> <br/>
<p>This concept started as a film soundtrack (ala Nightwish with <em>Imaginaerum</em>), but evolved into a "lighter-weight" media concept when they met comic book writer Steven O'Connell (<em>BloodRayne</em>, <em>Dark 48</em>). The album, <em>The Unforgiving</em>, was released in 2011 alongside a comic book of the same name, written by O'Connell and illustrated by Romano Molenaar (<em>Witchblade</em>, <em>The Darkness</em>, <em>X-Men</em>). The band also made three short films that tie in with the characters and stories from the album and comic book. This is the second of those two short films:</p> <br/>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/NUuInD9HLaE" frameborder="0"></iframe> <br/>
<p>(Fun fact: The character's name was originally "Maya," and she was South American, but den Adel requested the name and nationality be changed as the music for "Sinéad" had already been completed.)</p> <br/>
<p>Prior to the album's recording, van Haestregt had been replaced on the drum throne by Swedish drummer Nicka Hellenberg; later, Mike Coolen would join as full-time drummer for the band's live shows.</p> <br/>
<p><em>The Unforgiving</em> was hailed by some critics, but panned by others, as you would expect from an album with a bit of a stylistic departure from the band's previous sound (again, like <em>Imaginaerum</em>). The album's release was accompanied by, of course, a major tour, including apprearances at a number of music festivals.</p> <br/>
<p>Through all of this, Westerholt and den Adel have managed to have three children (a girl and two boys) together. Westerholt has now mostly retired from touring with the band (replaced by Stefan Helleblad) so he can take care of the children and focus primarily on production and songwriting. There's a real example of "family values" for you!</p> <br/>
<p>As I've said, Within Temptation makes up one leg of my "trinity" of top symphonic-metal bands. Sharon den Adel's voice is not "operatic" like Tarja Turunen; I would describe it as "ethereal," often floating gently through the accompanying music, but capable of solid power when it's needed. One day, I hope they play Denver live, as I'd like to see them perform, and the reaction they get from Denver metalheads. \m/</p></p>
http://erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/let_me_say_this_muchLet Me Say This Much In ResponseErbo2012-04-15T16:22:00-06:002012-04-15T16:22:37-06:00
<p><p>Over on the <em>Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler</em>, DJ, who has been the resident "Loyal Opposition" for over ten years as well as contributing technical expertise to keeping the site thriving, has <a href="http://nicedoggie.net/?p=4559">just announced</a> that he has Stage III liver cancer, probably close to Stage IV. His estimate is that he has no more than a year left, unless he finds a donor organ for a transplant before hitting Stage IV, which even <em>he</em> admits is unlikely.</p> <br/>
<p>Please note that the link in the paragraph above is unlikely to be functional by the time you read this, as he has announced the intention to take the post down shortly. He has also disabled comments on the post. The reason?</p> <br/>
<blockquote> <br/>
<p>Please understand as I am telling you this, I am NOT asking for your prayers or sympathy. I do not deserve either. I have known about this for about six months now, and since there have been a few of you asking after my health, I felt that I should come clean as much as I am comfortable with.</p> <br/>
<p>[...]</p> <br/>
<p>Please understand that I do NOT want your sympathy nor your prayers. I just want to be treated as I have always been. I only want to come clean and let you know that I am not going to be around too much longer.</p> <br/>
</blockquote> <br/>
<p>When I read this, I have the uncomfortable feeling that DJ is selling himself short. Besides, regardless of whether he wants, or feels he "deserves," sympathy and prayers or not, <em>he's going to get them anyway</em> from his fellow denizens of the Rott. Including me. Because <em>we're human beings</em> first and foremost, no matter how far to the Right we are of his political positions.</p> <br/>
<p>And so I offer mine, with no Imperial Authority behind it, just one conservative geek among many raising a voice.</p> <br/>
<p>DJ, there <em>is</em> such a thing as a "Loyal Opposition." To a certain extent, we <em>need</em> having our beliefs and positions challenged on a regular basis, because that forces us to re-examine them, and help build them up and make them stronger. And your opposition is a lot more articulate than that of most of Ogabe's NSDWP minions, whose entire argument could be summed up in large part as "You're nothing but racist, sexist, uncivil bitter-clinger Visigoths who're being <em>not helpful! <strong>WAAAHHHH!! MOMMYYYYYYY!!!</strong></em>" Don't think that goes unappreciated, as vehemently as we may argue against you. Besides which, as opposed as you are to the kind of opinions being expressed on the Rott on a daily basis, you've gone above and beyond the call of duty in keeping the site alive so that those opinions <em>could</em> be expressed...and, as a former manager of a virtual-community site myself, I do know something of what that entails, including things like checking in with the site while on vacation in Maui to make sure everything is copacetic. I doubt anyone could ever "replace" you in either of those two roles; they can only <em>succeed</em> you.</p> <br/>
<p>Cancer is a hell of a thing. Many of us on the Rott have gone through it, and/or had loved ones that have gone through it. For my part, my father had throat cancer back while I was in college, and has just recently been diagnosed with, and treated for, pancreatic cancer. An aunt of mine succumbed to breast cancer. My ex-wife had a hysterectomy years before I met her, due to uterine cancer. I would bet that not one of us does not at least <em>know</em>, on a clinical level, what happens as a result of this. We're all qualified to sympathize...and those of us who are of the sort inclined to offer prayers are not only qualified, but <em>called upon</em> to do so when "a member of the family" is in need. You may not believe that there's Anyone on the other end of those prayers to listen to them, and intercede on your behalf...but there may yet be. In an infinite universe, <em>anything</em> is possible.</p> <br/>
<p>In the same post, DJ has announced his intention to take a series of bike rides around the U.S. and Canada for as long as he is physically able to do so. To him, I will offer one final benediction:</p> <br/>
<blockquote> <br/>
May the road rise up to meet you,<br /> <br/>
May the wind be ever at your back,<br /> <br/>
May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields,<br /> <br/>
And, until we meet again,<br /> <br/>
May God hold you in the hollow of his hand.<br /><small>Old Irish blessing</small> </blockquote></p>
http://erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/seven_days_in_aprilSeven Days in AprilErbo2012-04-11T23:03:52-06:002012-04-11T23:08:21-06:00
<p><p><em>April 4, 2012</em></p> <br/>
<p>I'm still not quite sure how it happened. One minute, I was cruising up Colorado Boulevard, on my way to King Soopers to fetch a sandwich for Sabrina after getting off work. The next, the Ford Escape was stopped at the light at Amherst in front of me. I jammed the brakes to the floor, but not even the anti-lock braking system could keep me from striking the Escape.</p> <br/>
<p>The Saturn jerked to a stop; I could see the hood folded up and in on itself, but no other damage was apparent from where I sat, and the air bags, significantly, had not fired. I wasn't injured...but the car certainly was.</p> <br/>
<p>The first thoughts that went through my head were, "No, no, no, no, <em>no</em>..." Little did I know that, a week later, I would wind up, perhaps, better than I deserved to.</p></p>
<p><p> </p><br/>
<p>After flipping the ignition off, I got out and walked forward to see what had happened.</p> <br/>
<p>The Escape's driver, a white-haired lady, didn't appear injured, and she was busy with a cellphone. The back of her vehicle, a compact SUV that rode higher than mine, didn't appear damaged. The Saturn, on the other hand, was a mess. The front bumper was punched in and cracked, missing chunks of plastic and Styrofoam in the middle. The left headlight was destroyed, knocked completely out and shattered; the right was spalled and cracked, with pieces missing. Components in the engine compartment seemed to be bent in, and the large dark puddle on the ground, not to mention the reek of ethylene glycol, seemed to indicate that the radiator had been mortally wounded. Even the air filter housing was partly splintered. The damage, however, seemed confined to forward of the front wheel wells...and, significantly, the Gorilla Tape on the front fenders that had been helping hold the front bumper in place was still intact. (<em>I might just have to send the company a testimonial</em>, I thought.)</p> <br/>
<p>I spoke to the woman in the Escape; she wasn't hurt and she let me know she'd just called 911. We stood there and commiserated for a bit before a Denver PD cruiser pulled up behind me. They evaluated the situation and told us to pull into the adjacent parking lot, to get out of the road. Surprisingly, the Saturn engine started up, and I was able to drive it off Colorado onto Amherst, then into the indicated parking lot, into a slot next to where the Escape had parked ahead of me. By the time I did so, however, the coolant warning light had lit up red on the dashboard; it was obvious the Saturn wasn't going anywhere further under its own power.</p> <br/>
<p>The officers coordinated the ritual exchange of information, writing our information down onto separate forms. They also wrote me a ticket for "following too closely," $160 and 4 points, discounted to 2 if I paid within 20 days. (I haven't had that many traffic offenses here; I think the last one was a speeding ticket in Lakewood while Pamela was still here.) I looked at the Escape again; all I could see was that the bumper had been pushed in just enough to pull away from the vehicle body on the right hand side...the sort of damage I'd previously slapped Gorilla Tape on and kept driving. She and I both expressed our gratitude that neither of us was hurt, shook hands, and she got into the Escape and drove off.</p> <br/>
<p>The police summoned a flatbed tow truck to remove the Saturn. I agreed to let the tow company move it to their lot on West Evans, while I tried to coordinate a way home somehow. I called Sabrina to let her know what happened, then I grabbed my computer bag out of the trunk and walked over to the nearby Rite Aid, for a quiet place to use my phone. Unfortunately, Enterprise Rent-A-Car was closed, and trying to call a taxi would have resulted in an expenditure I didn't think I wanted just then. I ended up walking home, about 4 miles or so. I managed it all right, though I stopped for brief rest breaks three times along the way.</p> <br/>
<p>Sabrina was just glad I was home all right and alive. I felt like a heel for letting her down like this, and wouldn't have blamed her if she'd walked out on me. She assured me she wasn't about to do that.</p> <br/>
<p>I still felt like dirt, though. The Saturn had been Pamela's car; she might be distressed to learn of its demise. And what was I going to do in the meantime? I retained enough presence of mind to open up a claim with Allstate via their Web site, though.</p> <br/>
<p><em>April 5, 2012</em></p> <br/>
<p>After getting ready to go to work, I called up Enterprise, and they picked me up, just like the ads say, taking me to the branch at Havana and Jewell. After a bit of a wait, I received my car--or, rather, <em>truck,</em> a black GMC Canyon crew cab pickup with New Mexico plates, as it was all they had. They gave me a break on the rate, though, and I climbed into the "Urban Cowboy Special" and headed for the office.</p> <br/>
<p>Surprisingly, it handled pretty well, though it drank fuel like an eight-armed alcoholic. I snapped a photo of it and sent it to Sabrina, who later put it in a <a href="http://gadona.wordpress.com/2012/04/05/urban-cowboy-in-the-house-lol/">post on her blog</a>. I also got calls from Allstate and from National Farmers Union (the other lady's insurance company), as the respective claims began wending their way through the system. E-mails informed me that an insurance adjuster would have a look at my car within the next few days.</p> <br/>
<p><em>April 6, 2012</em></p> <br/>
<p>Allstate called me again, this time quizzing me about the condition of various parts of the car before the accident. The Saturn had been in reasonably good shape, other than the tape needed at the fenders and a chip that had been broken off one of the door panels by Cousin Rikki's enthusiastic kick. And I'd just put new tires on it in January. I took my phone into the Attitude conferencing room and told them all I could. They got back to me with the news: the Saturn was being deemed a total loss.</p> <br/>
<p>I'd half expected it--I'd given it about a 50-50 shot of survival--but it was still a bit of a blow. The car that Pamela had so proudly driven off the dealer lot, new, in 2001, that had served her for years and then served me after she left for Finland, that had carried me on the Grand Adventure to bring Sabrina home, that had covered thousands of miles in good health, had now met its final end. I was directed to go over to the towing company's lot to sign the release form, at which time I would be able to remove any personal effects from the car, and then it would be transported to an Allstate salvage yard. Perhaps parts from it would be used to keep other Saturns running...this might be important, since the S-series was discontinued in 2003 and the Saturn make itself had been dropped by GM in 2010.</p> <br/>
<p>I drove the truck over to the lot on West Evans, signed the form, and then was let into the yard, where I parked the truck almost directly in front of the Saturn. Carefully, I started removing gear from it: the emergency equipment and carrying basket from the trunk, the snow brush and scraper from the back seat floor, the stuff from the glove compartment. I removed the XM radio from the console vents, its magnetic antenna from the roof, the parking stickers and E-470 transponder from the windshield, the Colorado Talking Book Library sunglass clips from the visors. I combed the vehicle one last time for anything of value, then, before I left, carefully switched off all the switches on the climate-control unit and the rest of the dashboard, made sure it was properly secured with the transmission in Park and the parking brake set, left the doors unlocked, and stood by it a minute.</p> <br/>
<p>"Farewell, Lady Jane," I said. "You deserved a better end than this...but your work here is done."</p> <br/>
<p>Loading the gear into the truck's back seat, I left, dropping off the key at the tow yard's office. I returned to work, with a quick stop by home to look up some receipts for Allstate and offload the salvaged gear. Later that afternoon, they called back...after subtracting my deductible, they would give me around $4,100 for the car once I signed over the title. It was a fair offer, I thought, for an 11-year-old car that was clearly not in tip-top shape prior to the crash, and from an orphaned make at that.</p> <br/>
<p>That night, my old high school friend Andrew and his wife Suzanne, being in town for a couple of days, joined us for dinner; I drove all of us from downtown to Dave and Busters, in the truck. We commiserated over the loss of the Saturn and a bunch of other things from over the years. That was a bright spot in this otherwise worrisome week.</p> <br/>
<p><em>April 7 & 8, 2012</em></p> <br/>
<p>Over the weekend, we ran some errands in the truck, and Sabrina started pestering me about looking for another car. She knew what she favored, of course: <em>Ford Taurus</em>. It seemed like I'd heard about <em>nothing else</em> from her on the subject of cars for months on end. Her father had been a Taurus owner, and she found them very comfortable. Nothing else would do; not a GM or Chrysler automobile (which I was opposed to anyway, on the grounds that I wasn't doing business with a company that took government bailouts); not a foreign make like Honda or Toyota (never mind that many of those cars are actually <em>built</em> in the USA); not even a different Ford model, like a Focus or a Fusion. It was a Ford Taurus or nothing with her.<br/>
</p> <br/>
<p>I sent in an application for a loan pre-approval with Star-Tech Federal Credit Union, the credit union where I'd deposited a bunch of money last year, and told her it was useless to think about what car to get until we knew what kind of price range I could handle. I could certainly put up a nice chunk of money down, like $5,000 or so. But how much would I get? No telling.</p> <br/>
<p><em>April 9, 2012</em></p> <br/>
<p>I took the title along with me to work, intending to deal with Allstate that day. First, though, I stopped at Enterprise, where they swapped me from the big truck into a smaller, more efficient vehicle, a Chevrolet HHR. (Not too bad, though Sabrina called it <em>fugly</em>.) Meanwhile, Mystic, the president of the credit union, had E-mailed me back asking for a copy of my pay stub. We don't get physical pay stubs at IQNavigator, but I pulled my most recent pay statement out of the ADT portal as a PDF and passed it to her. A couple of hours later, I got my preapproval certificate: enough to get a good car, at an interest rate that was better than I thought I was going to get.</p> <br/>
<p>The Allstate claims office wasn't too far from my office; I stopped in there, presented the signed-over title, and received my check. From there, I drove up to Star-Tech's little office suite in the Tech Center, to deposit the check to my share draft account...and finally met Mystic face-to-face. She assured me that the loan amount had a little "wiggle room" on it if I needed to go slightly over; I didn't plan to, though I thanked her for that. I cleared up some questions I had, and called Sabrina from the parking lot, giving her the figures and the parameters for a search.</p> <br/>
<p>Sabrina exceeded expectations; by the time I got home, she had already located five dealerships in the area with used Ford Tauruses for sale, of various vintages, colors, trim levels, and mileages. One had caught her eye, at O'Meara Ford in Northglenn...a silver 2011 Taurus with about 42,000 miles on it, and she'd even spoken to their Internet sales manager on the phone. The listed price was downright workable, given the loan preapproval certificate still sitting in my inbox. We elected to forego watching <em>Dancing With The Stars</em>, and, as she got dressed for the trip up there, I signed in to print my preapproval certificate and do some fast research on the Kelley Blue Book site: the listed price was at least $600 under Blue Book value for the car.</p> <br/>
<p>We got up there to find that the man Sabrina had talked to had left, but another salesman brought out the car...a silver vehicle as solid and assured as any I'd ever seen, the blue Ford oval prominent on its nose and tail. Sabrina got into the passenger seat as I took a look around. The interior was charcoal gray in various shades, the sloped dashboard trimmed in chrome and textured aluminum. I slipped into the driver's seat for a moment, checking the feel of it; the seat was more comfortable than I'd been in the Saturn, that's for sure. The sight lines reminded me of my old Oldsmobile Alero, as did the feel of the leather-wrapped steering wheel. The climate-control system included separate temperature controls for the passenger (Sabrina squealed with delight); the stereo system included Sirius satellite radio and an auxiliary input jack for an iPhone or other MP3 player. I walked around the car, checking the finish, popping the trunk to look inside (it was positively <em>cavernous</em> compared to the Saturn), lifting the hood to look over the Duratec 3.5-liter V6 engine (again, very close to the 3.4 liter V6 in my Alero). Finally, the salesman and I joined Sabrina in the car, and I took it out for the first time, taking it one exit south on I-25 and returning via surface streets. The vehicle had a gentle touch, responding easily to my control inputs, its power readily available when I toed in the gas, but most of the time feeling like it was hardly even ticking over.</p> <br/>
<p>We entered the dealer office and quickly covered a table in paper, working out the framework of the deal. I had to call Allstate to get a quick proof of insurance faxed over, and there were many documents to be read through, initialed, and signed. We were then hustled to a finance office in the back for more paperwork; by bringing my own financing, I had saved a great deal of interest and a fair bit on my monthly payments. He also ran my Star-Tech debit card for the largest single charge I'd ever made...the down payment, five large. Meanwhile, somewhere, the Taurus was being cleaned and readied for departure, its temporary registration affixed in the rear window.</p> <br/>
<p>I had owned three cars in my life: the Mazda 323, which came from Santa Barbara to Denver and succumbed to serious engine trouble; the Alero, which had fallen into disuse after Pamela left and that had eventually been towed off; and the Saturn, now deceased. And now...I was a Ford owner, of a car bigger and posher than anything I'd ever driven.</p> <br/>
<p>We left the HHR parked in the dealer lot and drove the Taurus home, after stopping at Sheila's house to show it off and driving up to Idaho Springs to check the feel of it as it climbed Mount Vernon Canyon. It took the hill without even straining...again, just like the Alero.</p> <br/>
<p><em>April 10, 2012</em></p> <br/>
<p>I had a doctor's appointment that morning, and then drove back to the Ford dealer to pick up the HHR and return it to the Havana and Jewell Enterprise office. Unfortunately, they couldn't drive me back all that way...but they could rent me <em>another</em> car for about $18 to drive up and drop off at the Enterprise office there, which was, coincidentally, <em>inside</em> O'Meara Ford. So, soon enough, I was on my way in a Toyota Camry, the fifth vehicle I'd driven in the span of a week. When I parked at the Ford dealership, I met our salesperson, who guided me to the Enterprise desk, where I dropped off the rental agreement and keys and reclaimed the Taurus, heading for work. Fortunately, I'd reattached the parking stickers from the Saturn to the Taurus' windshield.</p> <br/>
<p>My Reminders list was jammed with items related to the new car, and I worked through a bunch of them, switching the insurance coverage, letting the apartment complex know what my car was, and switching the satellite radio service. (That turned out to be more of a pain than I thought; Sirius XM may be one company now, but their accounting system doesn't allow Sirius radios and XM radios on the same account. I had to effectively close the XM account and open a new Sirius account.) The actual plates would have to wait for the title work to be completed and Arapahoe County to send me a notification, and fixing my E-470 account would have to wait for the plates. (And I can't pay the ticket online yet...not till 10 days after the accident.)</p> <br/>
<p>I did show off the car to a couple of my coworkers...Nathan had an OBD-II reader device, and Natraj wanted to borrow it to check his car for diagnostic codes. On our way up, we stopped at my car, and Nathan plugged the reader into the diagnostic port located at the bottom edge of my dashboard below the steering wheel. He found no diagnostic codes, as I would expect. Natraj's car showed one, having to do with the fuel evaporation recovery system...maybe a loose gas cap.</p> <br/>
<p>That night, I looked up the VIN of the Taurus on a couple of different sites, one decoding all the code letters (my new Taurus was originally manufactured in Chicago, Illinois) and one showing me the original window sticker (SEL trim, no options except for front license plate bracket and California emissions, both "no charge" ). And then I registered with fordowner.com...because, after all, I <em>am</em> a Ford owner now.</p> <br/>
<p><em>Epilogue: April 11, 2012</em></p> <br/>
<p>I drove up Colorado Boulevard, today, past the scene of the accident. Over on the sidewalk, I actually spotted what looked like most of the Saturn's former left headlamp housing; I must have left it behind that day, and someone dragged it from the street onto the sidewalk. I wondered how long it would sit there, in memory of the car that met its end that day.</p> <br/>
<p>Earlier Sabrina had <a href="http://gadona.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/the-new-car/">blogged</a> about the new car, and I'd finally broken the news to Pamela, that her "Lady Jane" was off to the great salvage yard in the sky. She took it better than I thought she would, and commended me on my choice of new car. Fords are popular in Finland...not Tauruses, but certainly Focuses and Mondeos (like the American Contour), and a few Fusions. She and Arto may get a good car of their own one day, like a Skoda Octavia or some such.</p> <br/>
<p>I had considered what the name of <em>this</em> car would be...perhaps "Serenity"? After all, it <em>is</em> shiny. <img src="http://erbosoft.com/blog/images/smileys/smile.gif" class="smiley" alt=":-)" title=":-)" /> But I haven't made up my mind yet. There's no hurry.</p> <br/>
<p>Carefully, I drove the big silver Taurus north, headed for King Soopers. Sabrina wanted a sandwich.</p></p>
http://erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/april_fool_quick_hits_2012April Fool Quick Hits, 2012 EditionErbo2012-04-01T23:11:26-06:002012-04-01T23:11:26-06:00
<p><p>The only universal holiday of the Internet is April Fool's Day, and this is when many sites bust out their best jokes. Here's a rundown of some of the stuff I've seen today. This is by no means an exhaustive list.</p> <br/>
<ul> <br/>
<li>Google is no slouch at April Fool's Day Jokes, and have turned out some of the best...and at least <a href="http://gmail.google.com/">one project</a> that was introduced on April Fool's Day that turned out <em>not</em> to be a hoax. Today they introduce <a href="http://www.google.com/racing/">Google Racing</a>, a partnership with NASCAR for autonomous race cars (!). Also check out their <a href="http://www.google.com/js/reallyadvanced.html"><em>Really</em> Advanced Search</a>.</li> <br/>
<li>Oh, and check out <a href="http://maps.google.com/?t=8&utm_campaign=8bit&utm_source=yt">Google Maps for the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System</a>. Blocky goodness!</li> <br/>
<li>FARK.com introduces <a href="http://www.fark.com/2012/aprilfools/index.html">FARK.mag</a>, "The Magazine by Drew Curtis's FARK.com's Drew Curtis." Help save a dying business model today, with their offer of 72 issues for the price of -72, or 200% off the cover price!</li> <br/>
<li>YouTube has put a lightswitch next to all their videos. Turn the lights off to get a dark background, then turn 'em back on! <a href="http://www.youtube.com/theyoutubecollection">Also, order The YouTube Collection</a>, all your favorite videos on actual DVDs, the way God and the MAFIAA intended, for one low, low price of $2,448,693 plus tax! Oh, and delivery may be somewhat delayed...</li> <br/>
<li>TechCrunch introduces <a href="http://techcrunch.com/drama/">TechCrunch Drama</a>, the channel for all your drama needs. I have a feeling they're only <em>partly</em> joking here... <img src="http://erbosoft.com/blog/images/smileys/smile.gif" class="smiley" alt=":-)" title=":-)" /></li> <br/>
<li>TVTropes has been randomly redirecting people visiting its home page to the translated versions...including the "<a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Lolspeak/HomePage">Lolspeak</a>" version. <em>"O hai. U can has descripshun of tvtropes? Dis wiki iz lolcatalog of trix of traed four riting fikshun."</em> If you can't understand it, ask your cat. <img src="http://erbosoft.com/blog/images/smileys/smile.gif" class="smiley" alt=":-)" title=":-)" /></li> <br/>
<li>Tyler Durden on ZeroHedge.com: <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/why-regulation-good-growth">Why Regulation Is Good For Growth</a>. <em>"The biggest problem with 'free' markets is the stupidity of the common people. How can they possibly know what they want, or what they want to achieve when they have not attended prestigious universities like Oxford, Harvard, or Yale?"</em> ZeroHedge on April 1 = HuffNPuffPost, Daily"ScrewEm"Kos, or Democrappic Underpants the other 365 days of the year (since 2012 is a leap year).</li> <br/>
<li>Facebook, according to some sources, <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/01/facebook-considers-adding-the-hate-button/">may be considering adding a "Hate" button</a>. Truth here, people: Wouldn't you buy that one at a black-market price <em>right now?</em></li> <br/>
<li>From the IETF, we have two new standards: <a href="https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6592">RFC 6592</a>, "The Null Packet," and <a href="https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6593">RFC 6593</a>, "Service Undiscovery Using Hide-and-Go-Seek for the Domain Pseudonym System." This is a longstanding tradition, and I'm pleased to see it has continued.</li> <br/>
</ul> <br/>
<p>On a sad note, April 1 marks the end of Francis W. Porretto's long-running conservative blog <em>Eternity Road</em>, due to various technical difficulties and "personality differences with his Webmistress." However, he continues blogging, for the present, at <em><a href="http://bastionofliberty.blogspot.com/">Liberty's Torch</a></em>. Make sure and follow him there.</p></p>
http://erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/quick_hits_issue_4Quick Hits, Issue 4Erbo2012-03-31T21:58:48-06:002012-03-31T22:01:39-06:00
<p><ul> <br/>
<li><em>Angry Birds</em>, well known as the hottest mobile game in the history of <em>ever</em>, is now taking over a <a href="http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/games/891943-angry-birds-theme-park-planned-for-finland">theme park</a>...or at least a part of <a href="http://www.sarkanniemi.fi/www/index.php?lang=en">Särkänniemi Amusement Park</a> in Tampere, Finland. Playset manufacturer Lappset Ltd. of Rovaniemi is working on the equipment for Angry Birds Land. Will it finally be the site of an historic <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIYNEJWnb0s">peace treaty</a> between the birds and pigs? Don't bet on it...</li> <br/>
<li>Speaking of gaming, Ars Technica notes that Microsoft will be increasing the number of achievements and Gamerscore points that Arcade titles are permitted to hand out, and <a href="http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2012/03/are-we-on-the-cusp-of-an-era-of-achievement-point-hyperinflation.ars">wonders if we're on the verge of Gamerscore hyperinflation</a>. Not that it really means anything; M$ could change the name of the Gamerscore to "<a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=e-peen">E-peen</a>" and it would probably better define what it actually amounts to.</li> <br/>
<li>ESR went to check out the new movie <em>John Carter</em>, and <a href="http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=4185">he actually liked it</a>. He says it sticks pretty well to the flavor of the Burroughs original, and where it deviates is either a nod to present-day movie conventions (e.g. giving Dejah Thoris the "Arwen treatment" ) or actually improves things (replacing the handwave over how John Carter actually <em>got</em> to Mars with some <em>actual plot</em>, including a possible sequel hook). This one might be worth seeing in 3-D IMAX "Holy-Shit-o-Vision"...</li> <br/>
<li>Crappy customer service is almost legendary across multiple industries, but <a href="http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/120126">here are some shining counterexamples</a>. Note especially the one from Southwest Airlines. Damn contact lenses are bugging me again... <img src="http://erbosoft.com/blog/images/smileys/wink.gif" class="smiley" alt=";-)" title=";-)" /></li> <br/>
<li>Alan Skorkin gives us <a href="http://www.skorks.com/2010/12/here-is-the-main-reason-why-you-suck-at-interviews/">the main reason why you suck at interviews</a>. There's plenty of helpful tips in here for developers looking to ace their next interview. Not that I need this advice at the moment, <em>deus volent</em>.</li> <br/>
<li>Remember I mentioned Pivotal Labs not long ago? Well, <a href="http://gigaom.com/cloud/exclusive-emc-buys-pivotal-labs/">EMC just bought them</a>. Om Malik speculates it's a move by EMC to take agile development to the enterprise. Wonder how that'll affect their pair programming?</li> <br/>
<li>The recently-announced tablet that runs KDE Plasma, formerly known as "Spark," <a href="http://aseigo.blogspot.com/2012/03/spark-becomes-vivaldi.html">has been renamed to "Vivaldi."</a> Now <em>that's</em> a classy name. Besides, I think I'd be a little leery of using a tablet with a name that represents pretty much exactly what you <em>don't</em> want a tablet to do.</li> <br/>
<li>So you say to me, "Erbo, is flamenco guitar metal?" And I reply: Yes. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q73TGFZfmnA">Flamenco guitar is f**king METAL.</a> \m/ (Hat tip: The guy behind the counter at Tradesmart over in Littleton, where I picked up an Epica CD and a Within Temptation CD I'd been looking for.)</li> <br/>
<li>Of course, I have declared a number of other things to be f**king METAL on Facebook, such as <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_vbdxwI5Ck">harps</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVDRX3Ou3GI">violins</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mieXVkSGb4">Harry Potter</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RVBBdkD6kA">grand pianos</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-o89dKjb-M">clarinets, flutes, and woodwinds</a>, and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHioIlbnS_A&ob=av2e">Christmas music</a> (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfVJu4ERDBQ">another example</a>). \m/</li> <br/>
<li>And where is the most metal place on earth? If you said "Finland," <a href="http://copyranter.blogspot.com/2012/03/world-map-metal-bands-per-100000-people.html">DING DING DING DING DING</a>. (Via JWZ)</li> <br/>
<li>Dave Winer sums up <a href="http://scripting.com/stories/2012/03/29/theRepublicanPhilosophy.html">what he sees as the Republican philosophy</a>: "1. My money is mine. 2. Fuck you." And just what the hell is <em>wrong</em> with that, Dave? Don't <em>you</em> believe <em>your</em> money is <em>yours?</em> If not, I'll be happy to take it off your hands, right here, right now! <img src="http://erbosoft.com/blog/images/smileys/wink.gif" class="smiley" alt=";-)" title=";-)" /></li> <br/>
<li>Research in Motion, the blackberry people, are going to <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/news/blackberry-maker-cede-most-consumer-212323407.html">give up on most consumer markets</a> and concentrate on their business customers. Well, business is where CrackBerry is strongest, so that <em>kinda</em> makes sense. But opinions are mixed. ESR <a href="http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=4249">thinks</a> that RIMM has opened itself up to imminent disruption from the low end and the company is on the skids; Karl Denninger, on the other hand, is happy that RIMM's new CEO seems to have pulled his head out of his ass, and has <a href="http://www.market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=204090">bought in</a> as a bit of a punt. Time will tell which of them is right.</li> <br/>
</ul></p>
http://erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/tradeoffsTradeoffsErbo2012-03-30T01:53:02-06:002012-03-30T01:53:02-06:00
<p><p>Over on Facebook, this little bit of feel-good liberal wankery is circulating: (transcribed)</p> <br/>
<blockquote> <br/>
<p><strong>Don't pump gas on April, 15 2012</strong> <em>[sic]</em></p> <br/>
<p>KEEP SENDING THIS Lets <em>[sic]</em> all try this, wonderful if it helps.</p> <br/>
<p>Il <em>[sic]</em> do it! If running low, just get your gas the day before on April 14 or the day after on April 16. Every little bit helps.</p> <br/>
<p>In April 1997, there was a "gas out" conducted nationwide in protest of gas prices. Gasoline prices dropped 30 cents a gallon overnight.</p> <br/>
<p>On April 15th 2011, all internet users are to not go to a gas station in protest of high gas prices. Gas is now over $1.20 a liter/$3.87 in most places.</p> <br/>
<p>If all users did not go to the pump on the 15th, it would take $2,292,000,000.00 (that's almost 3 BILLION) out of the oil companies <em>[sic]</em> pockets for just one day, so please do not go to the gas station on April 15th and let's try to put a dent in the Middle Eastern oil industry for at least one day.</p> <br/>
</blockquote> <br/>
<p>How quaint...a boycott of gasoline, on Tax Day (or, for some, <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/aaronscase/2875050">Buy a Gun Day</a>), no less. Of course, if you do as they say and tank up on the 14th or the 16th, the oil companies will still get their money, as <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18492185/ns/business-answer_desk/t/why-one-day-gasoline-boycott-wont-work/">this MSNBC article</a> debunking the whole concept tells us. The article's author points out that Department of Energy statistics show no evidence for the massive drop in gas prices in 1997 the aforementioned spam claims. (Given MSNBC's well-known liberal bias, the fact that they'd run this article is telling.)</p> <br/>
<p>As for myself...well, I only generally fill up once a week, so there's a 86% chance I won't be buying gas on April 15th, "boycott" or no. But, if I <em>have </em>to fill up that day, I won't let some anonymously-circulated, semiliterate piece of liberal propaganda stand in the way of my having a working car. Funny how, you know, <em>having an actual <strong>job</strong></em> that you have to get to on a daily basis changes your perspective on this, now, doesn't it?</p> <br/>
<p>Now, if the liberals are reading this, they would probably say something like, "Well, why don't you just take the bus/light rail/bicycle to work?" Sure, I could do that...except that any of those solutions would take at least <em>twice</em> as long, and maybe <em>three times as long or longer</em>, as driving myself. <em>My <strong>time </strong>is a valuable resource, too, you know!</em> I have chosen one of the classic tradeoffs of money (in the form of gas) for time here...and if you know anything about engineering, you'll know <em><strong>it's all about tradeoffs</strong></em>.</p> <br/>
<p>(Speaking to bicycling in particular, I have hard numbers on this from Google Maps. My home to IQNavigator is 7.3 miles over surface streets, i.e., not on I-25. They time that route as 20 minutes by car...and <em>54 minutes</em> by bicycle. I'd be spending <em>over an hour a day extra</em> if I tried to commute by that route...a full 1/24th of my precious life's hours. Remember, folks, you can frequently make more money, but, no matter how rich you are, there are still only 24 hours per day. Puts it in perspective, doesn't it?)</p> <br/>
<p>. . .</p> <br/>
<p>There's one aspect of that little missive that does <em>potentially </em>have a point...the point about the "Middle Eastern oil industry."</p> <br/>
<p>Why <em>do</em> we bring in all that oil from the Middle East, anyway? Could it be because the liberal envirowackos--the <em>same kind</em> of well-meaning fools who are circulating the "Don't Pump Gas" screed--have, through their wholly-owned subsidiary the National Socialist Democrat Workers' Party, made it damn near impossible to drill for oil in <em>this</em> country? Colorado, for instance, has an awful lot of <a href="http://www.deseretnews.com/article/660227927/Oil-shale--Colorado-Utah-deposits-rival-OPEC-reserve.html">oil shale</a> out on the Western Slope...and, if it were allowed to be extracted, not only would it keep us from having to import as much oil from overseas, the royalties from oil production would go a long way towards shoring up the state's budget woes. (Not that we <em>want</em> to encourage the clown car we call "the General Assembly" to spend <em>more</em> money, mind you...)</p> <br/>
<p>Instead, we trade off drilling <em>here</em> for drilling <em>there</em>...and any environmental damage that might happen as a result happens to "the little brown people" in Saudi Arabia, etc., <em>not</em> us. And <em>they</em> get the money, too...which they, in turn, spend on terrorist groups that would like to see us <em><strong>wiped off the face of the Earth.</strong></em></p> <br/>
<p>Tradeoffs.</p> <br/>
<p>. . .</p> <br/>
<p>But it doesn't have to be this way...and, if you read <a href="http://www.market-ticker.org/akcs-www?singlepost=2491667">Karl Denninger</a> (and if you don't, <strong><em>why the hell not?!?</em></strong>), you'll know there's a way forward.</p> <br/>
<p>Did you know that the United States has even more in the way of <em>coal</em> reserves than we do in oil? And did you know that one of the primary impurities in coal is <em>thorium</em>? And did you know that thorium can be used as fuel in nuclear reactors--reactors of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_fluoride_thorium_reactor">a vastly different type</a> than we have now?</p> <br/>
<p>Liquid fluoride thorium reactors (LFTRs) are not new; the technology behind them was successfully demonstrated at Oak Ridge Laboratories in the 1960's. The only reason we <em>didn't</em> pursue them back then was that they breed fuel very slowly, and the fuel they produce is very difficult to extract for making nuclear weapons. Sounds like a <em>big plus</em> in this day and age, doesn't it?</p> <br/>
<p>LFTRs are also inherently safer than other nuclear reactors. The reactor does not require high pressure; the fluid it uses is a liquid at atmospheric pressure and its normal operating temperature. The reactor literally <em>cannot</em> suffer a Fukushima-type meltdown, as there are no fuel rods to melt down; the fuel and the coolant are the same fluid, circulating through the fixed moderators in the reactor core vessel. This fluid is kept in the reactor by an actively-cooled "freeze plug"; if the reactor loses power, the plug melts, and the fluid drains out of the core into holding tanks below, where it cools and solidifies, as it <em>cannot</em> maintain criticality outside the reactor vessel. They <em>tested</em> this safety feature of LFTRs at Oak Ridge, too--they literally <em>turned off the power and went home for the weekend!</em></p> <br/>
<p>LFTRs also operate at a much higher temperature than regular reactors, around 650 degrees Fahrenheit. This has several advantages; for one, we can use air-cooled combined-cycle generating turbines, for instance, instead of water-cooled Rankine-cycle turbines that require access to large amounts of water. But the big advantage is that we can tap that process heat directly--and use it to run the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer%E2%80%93Tropsch_process">Fischer-Tropsch process</a>, to convert the coal we extracted the thorium fuel from into synthetic petroleum. This is <em>also</em> not new technology; the Germans were using it in World War II, and the process has been refined (no pun intended) somewhat since then.</p> <br/>
<p>By many estimates, the potential energy in the thorium impurities in coal amounts to <em>thirteen times</em> the amount of energy we could get from just <em>burning</em> the coal. So why do we still burn it?</p> <br/>
<p>Instead, we could take that coal, extract the thorium, use it to run LFTRs, and use the heat generated by the LFTRs both to run turbines to generate electricity, <em>and</em> to run the Fischer-Tropsch process to convert the remaining coal into petroleum. We could literally replace <em>all</em> our gasoline and diesel fuel requirements this way, ending imports of foreign oil. A second-order effect of this is that we could shrink our military expenditures, as a large portion of our military power goes into making sure we have access to foreign oil. We might be able to cut the amount we need to spend on the military in <em>half</em> this way.</p> <br/>
<p>In addition, this way, we don't have to replace our fleet of cars and trucks with hybrids, electric cars, cars that run on hydrogen and/or ethanol, etc. Despite any faults, liquid hydrocarbons are still the most effective fuel for mobile use that we have, both in terms of energy density (both per-unit mass and per-unit volume) and in terms of the energy and expenditures required to make the propulsion systems (internal-combustion engines vs. battery packs, etc.). But, though we're still "burning" our coal, in the form of synthetic petroleum, <em><strong>we're not burning the oil we would have imported but aren't any longer!</strong></em> So we're getting both electricity and transportation, but we're doing it with only <em>half</em> the carbon emissions as before (approximately). Put it that way, and I don't see why the Glowbull Wormening fanatics aren't <em>all over</em> this plan!* (Nuclear waste, you say? LFTRs produce a hell of a lot less waste than other nuclear reactors...they tend to "burn up" their own waste over time, and the fuel/coolant mix can be continuously reprocessed without producing weaponizable byproducts.)</p> <br/>
<p>We also wind up with <em>dramatically more</em> electrical power than we would have had by burning the coal--and that's <em>after</em> taking into account the energy expenditures required to produce the synthetic petroleum. So there'd be <em>plenty</em> of energy available to charge up electric cars, or electrolyze water into hydrogen, if you still wanted an electric or hydrogen car for some reason. More energy available equals more economic output...equals more prosperity. <br/>
</p><br/>
<p>How long could we sustain this, with our proven coal reserves? At least <em>two centuries,</em> even accounting for population growth and assuming no drop in per-capita energy use. At our rate of technological progress, we'll have figured out hydrogen fusion in far less time. (Hell, <em>Star Trek: Enterprise</em> posits that we'll have <em>warp drive</em> before then. I wouldn't go <em>that</em> far, but we're certainly <em>not</em> just going to stand still.)</p> <br/>
<p>There are engineering challenges to be solved along this path, to be sure. But no breakthroughs of technology are required, just refinements on what we already know. We <em>can</em> make this work, and do so at a reasonably-competitive price. We can have vastly more energy, keep our cars, and go tell the "weird beards" of the Middle East that they can damned well <em>drink</em> their oil...but, if they try any more shenanigans with us, the retribution that will follow will rank among the great retributions of human history.</p> <br/>
<p>What's the tradeoff? Mostly, we have to have the <em>political will</em> to do it...and that means potentially pissing off not only the aforementioned envirowacko contingent, but those companies that are already making comfortable money off the existing energy non-policy. (I'd say, get them on the same side by letting <em>them</em> run the reactors...there'd be profit to be made there.)</p> <br/>
<p>Unfortunately, <em>that's</em> a tradeoff our spineless, gutless politicians on <em>both</em> sides of the aisle are unwilling to make.</p> <br/>
<p>(Go search <a href="http://www.market-ticker.org/">Denninger's site</a> for "thorium," "LFTR," or "energy." He's written <em>a lot</em> more about this, that defies easy summary.)</p> <br/>
<p><small><em>* - Actually, I do. This plan <strong>doesn't </strong>allow them to redistribute the wealth of the world from "evil" countries like the United States to all those "deserving poor" elsewhere, while skimming off any amount they like to enrich themselves, and exercising all the political power that goes with it. But that's kind of beside the point.</em></small></p></p>
http://erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/music_to_throw_the_goat1Music To Throw The Goat To: Divine AscensionErbo2012-03-07T00:21:10-07:002012-03-07T00:21:10-07:00
<p><p>Every once in awhile, since I'm known to be a metal fan out there on the Internets <em>(No!! Really??)</em>, I get "picked up" by bands on Twitter, YouTube, or whereever, looking to gain popularity, fans, or maybe some free publicity. Some of those bands are really, really good. One of those really, really good bands is from the Land Down Under: <a href="http://divine-ascension.com/">Divine Ascension</a>.</p> <br/>
<p>More on their story below the fold.</p><br/>
<p> </p></p>
<p><p><img src="http://www.erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/mediaresource/0aa1cc24-e268-4e0a-a5ac-e68fc7c59764?t=true" alt="Divine Ascension logo" align="left" border="0" hspace="4" />Divine Ascension occupy what I call the "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrangian_point">Trojan point</a>" of progressive metal and symphonic metal. They employ keyboards and a classically-trained female lead vocalist like many symphonic acts, but their music has a complex, progressive-rock structure to it. The group is a six-person ensemble, consisting of Jennifer Borg (lead vocals), Karl Szulik (lead & rhythm guitars), Robb Inglis (rhythm & lead guitars), David Van Pelt (keyboards), Simon Mahoney (bass), and Luke Wenczel (drums). Borg's voice isn't as operatic as Tarja Turunen or Simone Simons, but it's very "rounded" and full, reminding me pleasantly of a friend and former coworker of mine now teaching music in the Bay Area. Their music shows off her great vocal range to maximum effect, too.</p> <br/>
<p>Divine Ascension formed in Melbourne in 2007, releasing a 3-track demo about that time that was intended as a promo to help them get gigs, but soon mushroomed into a full-blown phenomenon across Australia. They've mostly been touring the country ever since, but, last year, they released their debut full-length album, <em>As The Truth Appears</em>, a ten-track collection available in the U.S. through <a href="http://nightmarerecords.com/NMR/online-store/pgxso-product-details/prx-855/ctx-1">Nightmare Records</a>. This album raises their profile beyond the shores of Oz, and the band are using social media such as <a href="http://www.facebook.com/divineascension">Facebook</a> and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/dascensionband">Twitter</a> to good effect to supplement that. The first single from the album, "Answers," highlights their talent considerably:</p> <br/>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/EyY7icbJYro" frameborder="0"></iframe> <br/>
<p>(The additional vocalist on that track is Silvio Massaro, giving the vocals kind of an "Anette-and-Marco" dynamic.)</p> <br/>
<p>That's by no means the only good track on that album; "Garden of Evil," in particular, which is my favorite track on the album thusfar, shows off the sweeping range of Borg's voice in its chorus, and tracks such as "Guided By Osiris" and "Civilization" have themes as epic as any European symphonic-metal act.</p> <br/>
<p>Divine Ascension is now back on tour throughout Australia, capitalizing on their successes. I look forward to the day when they will embark on a tour of much larger scope, getting as far as Denver. I think they'll find a receptive audience here when they come...and I'll be right there among them. \m/</p></p>
http://erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/quick_hits_issue_3Quick Hits, Issue 3Erbo2012-03-06T00:12:08-07:002012-03-06T00:40:27-07:00
<p><ul> <br/>
<li>Seems that Facebook has been claiming that people's friends are <a href="http://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/facebook-claims-youre-playing-games-you-arent-playing/9632">playing games they're not <em>actually</em> playing</a>. I've noticed this issue first-hand. Sabrina asked me why I was playing a specific game on Facebook; I checked, and I had <em>blocked</em> that game entirely. (I block most games on Facebook routinely. It's nothing personal.) I put it down to Facebook having more bugs than a bait store...but guys, you <em>might</em> just want to slip a user story into your next iteration for this.</li> <br/>
<li>More innovation from the Finns: they have an "Open Ministry" (<em>Avoin ministeriö</em>) Web site launching soon where <a href="http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Workshop+of+volunteers+is+building+a+website+to+facilitate+the+launching+of+citizens%E2%80%99+initiatives+/1329103525835">anyone can propose a new law or initiative</a>, and, if it's popular enough, the Parliament has to take it up. You'd expect this sort of thing in Finland, where Internet access is practically a way of life; in some respects, this is one of those "Oh, they're only doing this <em>now?</em>" moments.</li> <br/>
<li>And, while I was over on the <em>Helsingin Sanomat</em> Web site, I spotted the news item that <a href="http://www.hs.fi/english/article/EDITORIAL+Halonen+President+with+a+social+conscience/1329103517700">Tarja Halonen has stepped down</a> as President of Finland, ending a 12-year term. In the United States, Halonen is most noted for her <a href="http://totallylookslike.icanhascheezburger.com/2008/08/05/conan-obrien/">resemblance to talk-show host Conan O'Brien</a>; Conan has <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpBGCoWfZlI">created political ads for her</a> (getting mention on US news channels!) and even <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Hcxd9S9IiU">traveled to Finland</a> (report in Finnish, from MTV3). I think everybody got a good laugh out of that. In the meantime, Halonen's record as President has been exemplary; I trust she will enjoy a well-deserved retirement.</li> <br/>
<li>For some perspective on why Finland is so awesome, <a href="http://anarchangel.blogspot.com/2009/11/finland-be-afraid-be-very-afraid.html">this piece by Chris Byrne</a> is a good overview. The cartoon is priceless, as is this advice: <em>"Never drink with a Finn, unless you feel like getting in a friendly knife fight. No seriously, there will be a knife fight, or at the very least a rock or iceball fight, but it will be friendly. You'll only be cut up a little bit and then everyone will go back and drink some more...Unless you're a Russian in which case you'll end up wearing your testicles as earrings."</em></li> <br/>
<li>Why does everyone hate jury duty? Professor Bainbridge offers up <a href="http://www.professorbainbridge.com/professorbainbridgecom/2012/02/why-does-everyone-hate-jury-duty.html">a laundry list of reasons</a>. Via <a href="http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/138137/">Glenn Reynolds</a>, who adds <em>"I think it's a matter of respect, ultimately. The jury is supposed to be coequal with the judge, but they treat you like cattle instead."</em> Ask Sabrina what <em>she</em> thinks about jury duty...and better not have anything else scheduled for awhile; a rant like hers takes time to fully appreciate.</li> <br/>
<li>Research is being conducted into the use of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to improve learning; if <a href="http://www.lastwordonnothing.com/2012/02/09/better-living-through-electrochemistry/">this writer's report</a> is to be believed, what it does is help silence all those inner voices of self-doubt and let you get on with the business of learning. <em>"What would a world look like in which we all wore little tDCS headbands that would keep us in a primed, confident state, free of all doubts and fears? Wouldn't you wear the shit out of that cap?"</em> I think we <em>all</em> would. (Via JWZ, who refers to it as a "tasp." Slightly incorrect terminology, though; a Niven tasp stimulates the brain's pleasure centers <em>wirelessly</em>, from a distance. A closer term might be "droud," which is the device that wireheads use that regulates the current into their brains, also from Niven's work.)</li> <br/>
<li>Jon Evans, posting on TechCrunch, takes the knife to one of Extreme Programming's sacred cows: "<a href="http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/03/pair-programming-considered-harmful/">Pair Programming Considered Harmful?</a>" Some shops, like <a href="http://www.pivotallabs.com/">Pivotal Labs</a>, live and breathe pair programming (as I learned at their session at Mile High Agile 2011); they likely won't think much of this article. However, the article suggests that developers are more productive when they enjoy privacy and freedom from interruption; <a href="http://www.joelonsoftware.com/">Joel Spolsky</a> and <a href="http://www.fogcreek.com/">Fog Creek Software</a> would agree heartily with this assessment. A mixture of both approaches is what Evans advocates; at IQNavigator, we kind of do this, employing pairing when it makes sense to do so and working solo when it doesn't. (The fact that our workstations are actually laptops, which can be undocked and taken elsewhere at need, helps facilitate this.)</li> <br/>
<li>Six words: <em>"<a href="http://xkcd.com/1022/">So...it has come to this.</a>"</em></li> <br/>
<li>Warning: Do <em>not</em> watch <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lubTLu_AnFA">this video</a> without having taken your blood pressure medicine first, and secure all firearms and heavy objects near the computer before playing. I'll just say this: "Nuke 'em till they glow, and shoot 'em in the dark. With bullets dipped in <em>pig fat</em>." (Via <a href="http://nicedoggie.net/?p=4080">LCBrendan at Misha's place</a>)</li> <br/>
<li>Here in Denver, we have a local traffic reporter named--I am not making this up, as Dave Barry says--"Amelia Earhart." And yes, she <em>is</em> a relative of the famous aviatrix. And she's a pilot herself, training to do what her famous relative attempted: fly around the world, in her Cirrus SR-22T. Here's her <a href="http://flywithamelia.wordpress.com/">blog</a> about the effort. Clear skies to you, ma'am!</li> <br/>
<li>Astrophysicist Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson was asked what the most astounding fact was that he could share about the Universe. In <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D05ej8u-gU">this video</a>, he gives his answer: That the atoms of our bodies were once part of stars themselves, that while we are in the universe, the universe is also inside us. Of course, as a <em>Babylon 5</em> fan, I already knew this: <em>"I will tell you a great secret, Captain. Perhaps the greatest of all time. The molecules of your body are the same molecules that make up this station, and the nebula outside, that burn inside the stars themselves. We are starstuff, we are the universe, made manifest, trying to figure itself out."</em> (Ambassador Delenn, episode "A Distant Star," season 2)</li> <br/>
</ul></p>
http://erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/pets_part_deux_the_exoticsPets Part Deux: The ExoticsErbo2012-03-04T19:01:06-07:002012-03-04T20:29:00-07:00
<p><p>Sabrina has a very nice <a href="http://gadona.wordpress.com/2012/03/04/pets-2/">article</a> up about pets today, in which she talks about her cat Deamon, my late cat Miss Star Kitty, and our present cat, Her Serene Highness, Princess Penelope Ponderosa Pollyanna Peachfuzz ("Penny" to her hoomans). But "pets" doesn't necessarily mean "dogs" or "cats." Let me tell you about some of the non-traditional companion animals our family has had.</p></p>
<p><p> </p> <br/>
<p>Back when I was much younger, I and some of my brothers had allergies to animal fur and animal hair, which precluded pets like dogs or cats. So our first real "pet" was a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_tortoise">California desert tortoise</a>. They're easy to take care of as pets; they mainly eat vegetables such as lettuce, green beans, spinach, and similar, as well as fruits like apples, grapes, and bananas. In a pinch, they even graze...and they can also be rather fond of rose petals. Our first one of those, we acquired while I was still in elementary school and we were still living in Cerritos. We named him "Homer," or "Homer T. Tortoise" in full (the "T" standing for "The," of course). Naturally, as a member of an endangered species, Homer has to be officially licensed by the California Department of Wildlife; he even has a "license plate," a tag affixed to his shell inside one of the back leg openings.</p> <br/>
<p>We weren't even the first members of our extended family to own tortoises; my grandfather had two, "Norman" and "Ralph." Norman was a mean bastard of a tortoise; he tended to attack humans that got close to him. By this, I mean he'd walk up to you, start bobbing his head at you (which is a sign of tortoise aggression), and, if you failed to move, head-butt your ankle. Male tortoises have a projecting edge along the front of their lower shell that they use as a weapon for this purpose. It's a big deal--if you're a tortoise. It's not always easy to tell a male tortoise from a female one, though; "Ralph" turned out to be more of a "Ralphina," as my grandfather found out when she laid eggs. At least one of them hatched, too, into a baby tortoise that my grandfather named "Lil' Toot," or "L.T." for short. (He put it thus: "E.T., go home! L.T., stay here!" )</p> <br/>
<p>Now, when I was in high school, it was one of my tasks in the morning to feed the tortoises before getting on the school bus. One morning, I walked out back to the tortoise pen, set up for Homer so he wouldn't try to dig his way out of the back yard, and saw a tortoise resting just outside the pen, against the wall of the house. I thought Homer had got out of his pen somehow...but, when I picked up that tortoise, it was obvious he wasn't Homer. For one thing, this tortoise had yellow eyes; Homer's eyes were brown. I checked the "tortoise house" inside the pen, lifting up its hinged roof to look inside. Homer was still in it, sleeping peacefully. I went back inside and told my father and stepmother, "We have a visitor." The visitor stayed, and was duly named "Jedediah T. Tortoise" by my father. (The name came from a story he'd told my stepmother about the legendary "Masked Tortoise," I think.) Male tortoises are territorial, if you hadn't guessed by my description of Norman, so Jed wound up getting his own pen. Sadly, Jed eventually contracted "bubbly nose," a sort of tortoise pneumonia, and despite Dad's and a local vet's best efforts, passed on. His legacy, however, was immortalized by an <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1985-10-08/local/me-15330_1_family-pet">obituary of sorts</a> in the <em>Los Angeles Times</em>.</p> <br/>
<p>Our family eventually increased the "tortoise herd," bringing in some other tortoises from people who'd kept them for awhile and then passed them on to us. The additions included several females, such as "Lolita" (so named because Dad thought she needed a bit of a "floozy" name), "Rosa Mae" (named after a famous hooker in the California mining town of Bodie), and "Bambi Maye" (named after a classmate of one of my brothers who probably should have <em>been</em> a hooker, with that name). Homer and Lolita (we think) eventually got together and did what tortoises do naturally, and we got a clutch of eggs of our own, which my father transferred to a terrarium set up as an incubator. He wound up with three live hatchlings, named "Olin," "Mary," and "Bull" by my brother Stephen. They all grew up into full-sized adults; Pamela even got to meet both Mary and Homer, when we went down to Poway to visit the family sometime before we got married. (I walked up to Homer and called his name, and he responded by turning and walking towards me. Somehow, that tortoise <em>remembered me</em>!) I believe they're still there; tortoises live longer than human beings, so it's entirely possible.</p> <br/>
<p>Nor did we stick exclusively to tortoises. My stepmother Donna had worked with a wildlife rehab center before she met my father, one that rehabilitated birds of prey. She kept one in her home, a sparrow hawk (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Kestrel">North American kestrel</a>) named "Gabriel," after the archangel, since he was prone to making "announcements" with his voice like Gabriel blowing his horn. After she and my father got together, Gabe came to live with us, and I acquired the responsibility of feeding him. Gabe's usual diet was beef heart, although he also enjoyed the occasional mouse or baby chick (pre-suffocated by my father and frozen for easy, prefab meals). Gabe and I got along; he would sometimes perch on my hand (with me wearing a leather glove, of course--those talons are sharp!) and bob his head at me or preen himself, both signs that he liked me. He would even let me gently stroke his feathers, and didn't bite me or anything. Gabe passed on several years after I met him; he was an old bird, and had had a rough life (in a zoo) before Donna took care of him. He died after having had a good meal, too, in the form of a baby chick. Donna and Dad later got another one to take care of, a female they named "Mariah." (No, not after Mariah Carey; they were thinking of the song "They Call The Wind Maria" from the Lerner and Loewe musical <em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paint_Your_Wagon_(musical)">Paint Your Wagon</a></em>. The "Maria" in that title is pronounced as if it were the currently-popular spelling "Mariah." ) Mariah was mostly Dad's bird; I didn't interact with her much, and she has since passed on as well.</p> <br/>
<p>Then there was the time my college roommate Dan kept and bred <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pterophyllum">angelfish</a>...and even sold a number of them back to the pet store, a pet store which later burned down in the Painted Cave Fire. Or the time my girlfriend of the time got a pair of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_anole">anoles</a>, and then foisted them off on me; I kept those silly lizards in my apartment for <em>years</em>, feeding them crickets. But since then, I've been almost boringly conventional, having had three cats, the aforementioned Star, Maui (who went to Finland with Pamela after we split up), and, of course, Penny. But not all pets have to be that conventional; as you can see, I've dealt with my share.</p> <br/>
<blockquote><em>All things bright and beautiful,<br />All creatures great and small,<br />All things wise and wonderful,<br />The Lord God made them all.</em><small>Anglican hymn, circa 1848</small></blockquote></p>
http://erbosoft.com/blog/erbo/entry/the_accumulation_of_karmaThe Accumulation of KarmaErbo2012-03-01T02:15:31-07:002012-03-01T02:15:31-07:00
<p><p>"Sheila needs $60 to be able to see her cardiologist," said Sabrina, turning to me, having muted the microphone that was sending her words to Sheila via Skype. "There's no way they can get that money. Is there any way you--"</p> <br/>
<p>I thought for a minute, sipping at the remnants of the large Pepsi I'd brought home from Subway. "Don't we have to go out and look at Walmart for your books? What day do they come out?"</p> <br/>
<p>"The 28th..."</p> <br/>
<p>"Well, it's the 29th. Tell Sheila we'll be coming by on our way up to Westminster, to pick up that computer from her that I'm going to be working on." The machine had lost its video twice already, and probably needed a new motherboard at this point. Which meant long, tedious hours to reinstall the operating system, but not for a couple days yet at least. "And then you might want to get dressed."</p> <br/>
<p>"I'll wear my new dress," Sabrina said, referring to the dress that she had literally just received from HolyClothing.com, after I'd placed the order over two weeks ago. It had to be shipped in from Germany, which accounted for the delay. "Sheila wants to see it."</p> <br/>
<p>She got ready as I slipped into the computer room, raised the lid on the Cr-48, and set up a transaction or two. Not long after I finished, we were off.</p> <br/>
<p>I pulled in at the Creekside King Soopers on Leetsdale, because I knew there they had a FirstBank ATM where I could score the needful. While I was there, I decided to toss in another wrinkle. I rushed over to the aisle with the greeting cards and flipped through the "Get Well Soon" cards until I found a good, funny one, which I paid for at the self-scan registers. Back in the car, Sabrina inscribed the card, then we tucked the three crisp $20s inside it before she sealed it up and wrote "Sheila" on the envelope, underlining it several times.</p> <br/>
<p>Of course, I went through downtown to get to the express lanes north, then carefully merged right to exit at Thornton Parkway and the drive to Sheila's place. To say she was surprised with the card would be an understatement.</p> <br/>
<p>. . .</p> <br/>
<p>The computer tower in the trunk was accompanied by several bags from the Westminster Walmart. We were taking it easy on the way back, driving down Sheridan Boulevard because we'd seen something going on on I-25 on the way up there, with only one lane getting by in the southbound direction. (Accident? Construction? No way to tell.) I had stopped at another Walmart further south, almost at US-36, to look for something I couldn't find at the first one. As I returned to the car empty-handed, I heard Sabrina talking on the phone. Whatever it was, it sounded serious.</p> <br/>
<p>"Sweetheart," she said, pulling the iPhone away from her face for a moment. "Jasmine is stuck over at the Walgreen's on Leetsdale. You know, the one where we get our meds? You think we can go get her and bring her back up to Sheila's place?"</p> <br/>
<p>She quickly explained. Jasmine was a friend of Sheila's who was eight months pregnant and had recently been kicked out of her apartment; she'd be staying with Sheila for a few days, then going home to her parents for a time. Somehow, she was stranded down there, and no one else Sheila knew could get there to give her a ride.</p> <br/>
<p>"All right," I said. "I'm headed that way double-time." As I said so, I cut south on Sheridan to pick up the US-36 East onramp, headed for I-25 and a quick trip towards home.</p> <br/>
<p>En route, Sabrina got a phone call which, confusingly, said "Portland, ME" on the caller ID display. The call turned out to be from Jasmine herself, who had made her way to a nearby friend's place. She gave us the apartment complex name and unit number, and I had Sabrina Google it to get a definitive address and get a proper fix on it with the map. In the meantime, the route there was much like the route home, so it was no trick to get there quickly.</p> <br/>
<p>At the destination apartment complex, we were met by Jasmine and her friend, and we loaded Jasmine's possessions into the trunk and back seat. Seeing how crowded she was, I made a quick stop by our home first, offloading the computer and Walmart bags and adjusting the rest of the load so she could have a more comfortable ride. Then off we went to Sheila's again.</p> <br/>
<p>Once we got there, I helped offload Jasmine's belongings, helped get enough of her bedding inside to sleep (Sheila's son had graciously offered Jasmine the use of his room), and even got her charger plugged in to provide some power to her nearly-dead smartphone. She was certainly in the best of hands when Sabrina and I left once more to head for home.</p> <br/>
<p>. . .</p> <br/>
<p>The way I look at it, I've accumulated a good amount of good karma this evening, first by helping Sheila, then by helping Jasmine. That's good. I have a feeling that, one day, I'm going to need all the good karma I can get, and then some.</p></p>